


Kingdom of Isolation

by boundBandit



Series: Bridge Across the Void [3]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Barry Allen is a BDSM hot potato, Bondage, F/M, Femdom, Hand Jobs, Handcuffs, Harry will do anything to save Jesse, Imprisonment, Oral Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-12
Updated: 2018-07-15
Packaged: 2018-11-13 03:00:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 17
Words: 28,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11175603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boundBandit/pseuds/boundBandit
Summary: On Earth-2, Dr. Harrison Wells’ daughter has been kidnapped, and he is forced to build a mysterious device for the supervillain Zoom. How far is he willing to go to keep his only child safe?Also, there’s bondage.





	1. Black Skies are Grinning

**Author's Note:**

> (Summaries of relevant past events are provided as needed, so don’t worry if you haven’t read the previous parts. Jump in wherever you want.)
> 
> Title is from the song "Let It Go" from the film "Frozen."
> 
> PREVIOUSLY ON 'BRIDGE ACROSS THE VOID':  
> On Earth-2, Zoom has taken over Central City.  
> Zoom threatened to blow up the Particle Accelerator, unless everyone obeys him. Central City has become a Mecca for any metahumans who want to rule over the ordinary humans.  
> Zoom kidnapped the daughter of Dr. Harrison Wells to force him to build something. Killer Frost and Deathstorm are supervillain lovers who are in charge of ensuring Harrison’s cooperation. They enjoy keeping him under control.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is from the song "When I'm Up (I Can't Get Down)" by Great Big Sea.
> 
> Content warnings and chapter summary at the end.

“Where’s my jacket?” Ronnie yelled so Frost could hear him over the shower.

“You’re wearing your jacket,” Frost retorted, leaning out of the shower without regard to her modesty.

“My other jacket,” Ronnie clarified. “It looks just like this one. It’s the one I wear when I send this jacket to the dry cleaners.”

“It’s so hard to be a sharply dressed supervillain,” Frost commisterated.

“I think I saw it in the living room,” Harrison called from the closet.

“Hey Harry, did you seriously use all the hot water when you showered?” asked Frost.

“Why do you need hot water? You’re Killer Frost,” argued Harrison.

“I absorb heat from my surroundings. That’s why I like fucking a metahuman who can burst into flame.” Frost abandoned the shower and angrily stomped into the master bedroom completely naked. Her nude body glittered where droplets of frozen water clung to her skin.

Harrison continued to button up his dress shirt. He was putting on the same outfit he had worn at the press conference over a week ago. Jesse had found one of his only non-black items of clothing. He had begrudgingly donned the crisp white shirt, buttoning it up all the way to his chin. Jesse had immediately unbuttoned the top few buttons. It would have looked too casual, except for the black tailored jacket she had given him to wear over it. It was stylish and sharp, but still comfortable. 

That was the day Zoom had taken her.

Frost came to stand in the closet doorway. She was wearing only her matching set of rhinestone studded undergarments. “You look dressed to kill, Dr. Wells,” she said.

“You look like a whore,” Harrison replied.

Frost shot an icy glare at him, but she was distracted by Ronnie returning to the bedroom. “Babe, you almost ready to go?” he asked.

“Just need to put on my gown,” Frost replied. “What the _hell_ are you wearing?”

“What? This is what I normally wear,” protested Ronnie.

“Exactly,” she retorted. “We hardly _ever_ have an excuse to dress up. We need to look nice.”

“What if I need to flame up?” asked Ronnie.

“You can leave your flame-proof jacket in the car, but right now, you need to suit up.” Ice crackled beneath her angry words. “God, you haven’t even shaved. Just because you’re Deathstorm doesn’t mean you have to look like death.”

Ronnie sighed like a petulant teenager.

“Damn it, you’re gonna make us late.” Frost adjusted her boobs within her push-up bra. “Go shave, and I’ll pick something out for you.”

Harrison ignored the bickering metahumans as he went over to the bed to sit down and put on his dress shoes.

“Why can’t you get all spiffed up like Harry?” asked Frost.

“It’s easy for Harry. He lives here. All his stuff is here,” argued Ronnie.

“And now we live here, too.” Frost went over to search through the half of the closet she and Ronnie had taken over since they’d moved in. Frost had also filled up closets elsewhere in the house with _‘free’_ clothing that local merchants had been too afraid to charge her for. She flagrantly enjoyed the perks of power.

After half an hour, they were finally ready. Frost was wearing a dark blue dress with silvery swirls that tumbled down along a trailing train. Above her plunging neckline, she wore a sparkling choker with tiers of glinting diamonds. Her silver strappy heels helped lessen the height difference between her and Ronnie, who was now clean-shaven and dressed in a sleek tuxedo. He tugged on the collar of his dress shirt, but the black bowtie held it firmly in place. He looked at Harrison’s open collar with open envy but didn’t complain. Anything to make his darling Frost happy.

Ronnie had to help Frost fold her impractical train into the bright yellow sports car. Then he tilted the driver’s seat forward so Harrison could clamber into the back. The two-doored car was another bit of ‘ _free’_ merchandise the pair had commandeered.

Ronnie went way over the speed limit, since no one would dare pull him over. He careened past the sign for ‘Ferris Air’ and screeched to a halt in the grassy field they were using for parking. The field was already packed with cars, but Ronnie slid into the space reserved for them, right by the tarmac.

In the next parking space, Felicity Smoak (or Panoptica, as she preferred to be called) lounged on the trunk of the shiny black convertible she had commandeered. “You’re late,” were the first words out of her mouth.

“Fashionably late,” retorted Killer Frost. She threw her impractical train out of the car ahead of her and climbed out, only for her high heels to sink into the damp ground. She swaggered on resolutely. “Now that we’re here, the party can start. Did you bring the guest of honor?”

“But of course.” Panoptica popped the trunk, and Ray Palmer (or Death Ray, as he preferred to be called) pulled a hooded and bound woman out of the trunk. 

The six of them made their way across the tarmac toward the gathered crowd. Harrison walked stiffly between Killer Frost and Deathstorm, while the woman from the trunk was dragged along between Panoptica and Death Ray.

It was time to unveil their masterpiece.

◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆

There were actually two crowds on the tarmac. A canopy was set up on one side of the square, and various reporters and local dignitaries were cowering within its confines. The canopy sheltered them from the light rain that had been falling for hours. It was never a downpour or a drizzle, but the sun hadn't come out all day. Never fully raining, and never fully not raining. Just…in between and indecisive, the whole day.

Everyone looked afraid to step out from under the canopy, like they had been threatened with bodily injury if they put one foot out of bounds. They probably _had_ been threatened with that, seeing as how metahuman guards dotted the perimeter of the tent, spaced out every few yards.

There was an intentionally empty area in front of the canopy, and the second crowd was gathered on the other side of it. This crowd was made up of the rest of Zoom’s metahuman army, and they stood in a much looser formation than the civilians in the tent. They had refused to put up a canopy for themselves, since they didn’t want to seem afraid of a little rain. They had also arranged themselves in deliberately cool poses, in order to look badass in any photographs the reporters took. No one had the balls to tell them they looked ridiculous.

Everyone instinctively knew the proceedings wouldn’t begin until the sun had set. Like most villains, Zoom preferred the darkness. Killer Frost and Deathstorm positioned Harrison between them, front and center of the metahuman crowd. He was one of the few humans on this side of the tarmac. They all stood awkwardly, awaiting Zoom’s arrival.

Everyone tensed when one of the reporters suddenly took a few steps out from under the canopy. One of Zoom’s minions, wearing a shiny black cloak with white sleeves, grabbed the reporter and shoved him back.

“I’m a reporter. Zoom told us to come here and report.”

“You can report from the tent,” hissed the cloaked metahuman.

“You can interview _me_ , if you want, darling,” crooned Killer Frost. The metahuman deferred to the higher ranked lieutenant, and the reporter scurried across the open space and stood a few feet in front of Dr. Wells and his two guards.

“Actually, I wanted to interview Dr. Wells,” clarified the reporter.

Frost rolled her eyes like she didn’t care. But Harrison caught a glint of jealousy in her gaze.

No one forbade him from continuing, so the intrepid reporter got his spiral notepad out and clicked his pen. “Dr. Wells? I’m Tony Woodward; I work for Central City Picture News. Can I ask you a few questions?”

Harrison had no desire to play twenty questions with a gangly boy reporter, but evidently Frost wanted him to because she glared at Harrison and said in a sulky voice, “Come on, Harry. He came all this way just to talk to you.”

“Sure,” Harrison said with forced agreeability. 

“Is the Particle Accelerator still primed to explode?”

“Yes.”

Frost gave Harrison another glare. Evidently one word answers wouldn’t suffice.

Harrison continued, “The particles have already been accelerated to maximum velocity, and they will continue to move around the Accelerator unless acted upon by an outside force.”

“An outside force. Like Zoom?” asked Tony.

“Yes,” Harrison replied curtly. 

“What does Zoom do with the people he catches trying to escape the city?” Tony was scribbling furiously in his notepad.

“He locks a few in the Pipeline.” He looked over at the hooded prisoner. “But mainly he just shreds their hearts or strangles them to death.” Harrison forced himself to feel no sympathy for Zoom’s countless victims. He couldn’t afford to waste his efforts on anyone but Jesse.

“Is your daughter okay?” was Tony’s next question.

Harrison just glared at him, and Deathstorm stepped forward to physically shove Tony away. The lanky reporter backed away apologetically. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked that,” he said with genuine regret.

“That’s enough questions,” said Deathstorm.

Tony didn’t take his eyes off Harrison as he said, “I know this is a hard time for you, but you have more allies than you think. You’re not alone in this.”

Harrison rolled his eyes.

Tony walked quickly across the No Man’s Land and stood under the canopy again. A black woman in a stylish trench coat moved to stand in front of him, like she could protect him from an army of metahumans. Harrison recognized her. Detective Iris West-Allen. 

◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆

Beyond the two crowds, there was a line of orange traffic barrels across the runway, discouraging anyone from venturing farther down the tarmac. It was hard to even tell the barrels were orange in the dying light of the evening, and there weren’t any artificial lights on that part of the runway.

The airfield hadn’t been in use for a long time, even before Zoom took over the city earlier that month. All the runway lights and big halogen light poles were burnt out. Instead, the tarmac was lit up with portable lights on trailers, brought in just for the occasion. Each trailer supported a tall telescoping pole topped with a spotlight, all aimed at the empty space between the two crowds. Everyone had four distinct shadows from the four separate spotlights.

The shadows grew even more stark as the mournful sunset died in the western sky. The skyline of Central City was backlit by the blood-red sky, and artificial lights slowly blinked on in various office buildings. Finally, the red sun was gone, and cold black darkness overtook the airfield. The crowds were already hushed and subdued, but silence fell completely when the darkness came.

And with the darkness came the dark. They couldn’t even tell which direction Zoom came from; he just suddenly appeared on the tarmac. The spotlights didn’t make a dent in his matte black suit, and the blue lightning sparked brightly as it danced erratically over his body.

Zoom paced at normal speed along the length of the tent, walking halfway in between the crowds of humans and metahumans. Reporters desperately took photographs and scribbled on their notepads.

 **“I’ve tried to be fair. I’ve tried to be clear in my expectations,”** lectured Zoom. **“But still, people have deliberately disobeyed my explicit instructions. Some have attacked members of my army. Some have tried to leave the city.”**

Zoom motioned for Panoptica to bring the prisoner forward. **“Some have even tried to help entire groups of humans escape my kingdom.”**

The hooded woman stumbled across the rough tarmac, blind and barefoot. She was wearing a nice white tank top with matching leather pants, but her clothes were dirty and wrinkled after days of imprisonment in the Pipeline. Panoptica ripped off her hood, and the woman shook her stringy blond hair out of her face and blinked in the brightness of the spotlights. Zoom used his vibrating hand to cut through the woman’s bonds effortlessly.

 **“But let it not be said that I am unmerciful. Especially when one of my lieutenants begs me to spare her sister’s life.”** Zoom looked over to where Black Siren stood, looking tense but hopeful. 

**“Instead of the penalty of death, I am sentencing you to banishment. Those barrels mark the edge of my kingdom.”** Zoom indicated the line of traffic barrels just beyond the edge of the spotlights’ focus. **“But once you leave, you can never return.”**

The woman in white looked over at Black Siren, who gave a subtle nod and a sad smile to her beloved sister. The woman nodded back, knowing this might be the last time they ever saw each other.

Not giving Zoom a chance to change his mind, the woman sprinted full speed down the runway, not caring that the soles of her bare feet were being chewed up by the pavement. Humans and metahumans alike watched her in mesmerized silence. Despite being held prisoner for days, probably being half-starved and abused, the woman was a survivor and could not be broken easily. She sprinted with the grace of a natural athlete, and her blond hair streamed behind her like ribbons of pale gold. 

Everyone half-expected Zoom to run her down and impale her chest before she could escape the city. Giving her a cruel glimpse at freedom before killing her painfully. But the dark-suited metahuman stood still and stoic and watched the woman in white sprint down the tarmac.

When the woman finally crossed the line, everyone in the crowd breathed a communal sigh of relief. The woman slowed her desperate pace, slumping her shoulders a bit with the weary victory of a marathon runner crossing the finish line. Then she burst into flames.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NOTE:  
> The necklace Frost is wearing is the titular jewelry from ‘The White Collar.’ Minus the blue diamond accents.  
> (‘The White Collar’ is Part 1 of this series.)
> 
> CONTENT WARNINGS:  
> Long-term imprisonment  
> Character death
> 
> CHAPTER SUMMARY:  
> Killer Frost and Deathstorm (Ronnie Raymond) are keeping Dr. Harrison Wells prisoner in his own house. They all get dressed up, then go to an airfield where a large crowd is gathered.  
> Tony Woodward does an impromptu interview with Harrison and confirms that Zoom can still use the Particle Accelerator to destroy the city and Zoom still has Harrison’s daughter Jesse as a prisoner.  
> Zoom arrives and monologues a bit about how he is a pretty reasonable supervillain, considering he is using violence to control the populace. To demonstrate his ‘mercy,’ he sets a prisoner free. But as soon as the prisoner crosses the townline, she bursts into flames.
> 
> Visit me on [Tumblr](https://theboundbandit.tumblr.com/).


	2. Wheat and Chaff

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is from Matthew 3:12 "His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
> 
> Content warnings and chapter summary at the end.

Sara Lance’s momentum pushed her forward, even as her flesh burned away. Her bones scattered across the pavement, clattering like hollow dry sticks. Her leg bones hit the ground first, followed by her pelvis and rib cage. Her skull flew the farthest and kept rolling several yards past her twisted spine. Her skeleton lay scattered and stretched across the tarmac.

A shockwave of white light spread out like a colorless rainbow from where she had exploded into flames. The rippling wave faded quickly, but it made the transparent force field temporarily visible.

Laurel Lance watched her sister burn alive with numb disbelief. Then a desperate plea burst from her lungs, “Sara!”

Laurel sprinted after her sister with no regard for her own safety. It was obvious before she even got close that there was no hope for Sara’s incinerated skeleton, but Laurel still ran.

She passed through the marked boundary at the same spot as Sara, and once again, a white ripple spread out in a flat arc. But this time, nothing burned. She passed unharmed through whatever had burned her sister alive.

When Laurel realized she was still alive, she stumbled to a halt, unsure what to do. Like she had expected to share in her sister’s fate and be spared from the isolation of grief.

She collapsed to her knees and reverently touched her sister’s smoking rib cage. Then she crawled awkwardly to where Sara’s skull had rolled to a stop. She picked it up with mournful affection and gently caressed the side. Like she was tucking a stray lock of blond hair back into place. An inhuman cry of loss erupted from Laurel’s throat as she tilted her head back and shared her grief with the world. She let the skull fall away to the side, and it spun out of balance on its curved top.

The only light on the two sisters was from the staccato bursts of flashbulbs from the reporters’ cameras. The strobe light effect lent a comic-book quality to Laurel’s dance of grief. She stayed kneeling and slowly turned her head back towards Zoom. The monster hadn’t moved from the spot where he had released Sara.

Laurel Lance took one last look at her sister’s remains, then Black Siren rose to her feet.

Fire reflected in her eyes as Black Siren tilted her head forward, like a bull preparing to charge. Her chest rose up and down as she fought to harness her anger. Then she lifted her head, and the lights from the numerous flashbulbs glinted off her black choker.

She was obviously aiming for Zoom, but the adjacent crowd was going to be caught in the **crossfire**. Siren didn’t care about collateral damage. She was hellbent on vengeance.

Siren took a deep breath, braced her feet, and leaned forward as another inhuman cry ripped from her throat. The air shimmered with concentric widening circles from the powerful sonic waves emitting from Black Siren’s throat, amplified by her choker. The whole audience, humans and metahumans alike, stepped back and covered their ears instinctively. Only Zoom stood still and **fearless**.

After a few moments, the crowd straightened up again in confusion. The forcefield undulated as the sonic blast crashed against it like ocean waves against a cliff, but nothing happened. A high-pitched screech could be heard, but it didn’t make anyone’s ears hurt. Black Siren did her Siren Cry even louder, but still, nothing happened. Finally, she sprinted back across the line of barrels, realizing she needed to cross through the barrier again.

The membrane rippled but didn’t burn her as she passed through a second time, and it faded back into transparent passivity as soon as she was through. 

This time, Black Siren was close enough to aim a more concentrated blast at Zoom, but it’s always pointless to attack a Speedster. He zipped forward and grabbed her one-handed around the neck to lift her off the ground. Behind him, one of the spotlights fell victim to her Cry, and it rained a shower of sparks down on the tarmac as it was shattered effortlessly by Siren’s powerful blast.

Zoom’s death grip crushed Black Siren’s choker and squeezed her airway shut, preventing her from using her metahuman power. She clawed at his arm and kicked at him desperately, but it was useless. Her efforts grew weaker and weaker as her body rapidly ran out of oxygen. Finally, she fell limp, and Zoom tossed her to the ground and zipped back to his rapt audience.

Panoptica went over to Siren’s broken body and secured a specially designed muzzle over the metahuman’s mouth. She locked anti-metahuman cuffs around her wrists and ankles, then Death Ray came over to haul the prisoner back to the car. **They came with one Lance in the trunk and left with another.**

While they took care of this, Zoom told the gathered press about the force field which now enclosed the entire city. **“The Human Shield is like a sieve, separating the wheat from the chaff. Metahumans can pass through unharmed in either direction, but _humans_ are burnt to a crisp.”**

Zoom dragged Dr. Wells over to stand in front of the canopy. The cameras flashed continuously and the reporters shoved microphones at Harrison, who pursed his lips in annoyance at their attention.

Zoom placed his hand on Harrison’s shoulder. **“Dr. Wells should be proud. His invention works perfectly.”**

Harrison looked down the runway at the smoking bones of Sara Lance. “I didn’t build it by myself,” he spat resentfully.

“Who helped?” piped up a reporter.

This was the last place Harrison wanted to be. He had done everything Zoom asked. He shouldn’t have to publicly confess his crimes against humanity. 

Zoom gripped Harrison’s shoulder just hard enough to be painful and hissed in his ear, **“Answer them, Dr. Wells.”** Once again, short answers would not suffice.

Harrison kept his eyes on the pavement in front of him and shoved his emotions down deep into the dark recesses of his soul. “Panoptica, Death Ray, and Black Siren helped. But Siren was taken off the team when her sister was arrested.”

Zoom relaxed his grip but kept his hand possessively wrapped around Harrison’s shoulder.

The reporters were leaning forward and stretching their microphones out, so they could get as close as possible without leaving the safety of the canopy. “How can it tell the difference between humans and metahumans?” was the next question.

“We adapted the sensor technology from my metahuman warning apps. The Shield burns anything that tries to pass through it, even inorganic things like bullets or missiles. It also blocks rays and beams, like when Black Siren tried to do her Siren Cry from the other side. The Shield only deactivates if the sensors detect a metahuman.”

“Where are the boundaries?”

Harrison recited numbly, “The Shield Generator is on the roof of STAR Labs. **The edges of the Shield are all equidistant from that point, like an invisible dome.** A map of the boundary lines will be posted in City Hall.”

“Why?” The question came out sharp and clear from the middle of the crowd. Harrison’s eyes snapped up to see Tony Woodward staring back at him. “Why did you agree to help Zoom hurt people? Why is your daughter more deserving of life than anyone else? What would she think if she saw you using science to kill innocent people?”

A split second later, Zoom phased through the crowd and pulled Tony out onto the tarmac. The reporter was thrown to the ground, and Zoom loomed over him menacingly.

But Tony kept his eyes on Harrison and calmly told him, “You’re better than this.”

Zoom crouched low and raised a vibrating hand, prepared to lower it into Tony’s chest. “Stop!” yelled a commanding female voice.

Zoom snapped his head around, annoyed that someone was interrupting his homicide. 

Detective Iris West-Allen stepped out from under the tent. Zoom zipped over and stood right in front of her.

Iris had to crane her neck back to stare the villain in the eye. “You said you wanted reporters here today. To tell the story of what they witnessed. If you start killing reporters just because they ask questions, then no one will believe anything they say. People will think you just force reporters to print whatever you tell them.”

The monster cocked his head to the side, and blue sparks skimmed over his body as the gears turned in his head.

Iris continued, “Everyone saw Sara Lance die, and everyone heard what Dr. Wells said. We understand. No one can leave the city. You’re in charge.” Iris licked her dry lips. “But if you start killing indiscriminately, then there is no incentive to cooperate. Why follow the rules if people get killed either way?”

Iris blinked, and Zoom was gone.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, but the silence following their collective exhale was filled with the screams of Tony Woodward. The reporter clutched at his hand desperately as crimson blood erupted from the stubs of his severed fingers. Zoom couldn’t let defiance go unpunished.

Photographers furiously snapped photos of the injured reporter, but Iris stepped forward to help him put pressure on his wound and staunch the bleeding. No one else was willing to leave the tent without permission.

◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆

Harrison stood near the car awkwardly, waiting for Ronnie to finish talking to Zoom’s other lieutenants. The parking lot was almost empty, since the civilians had fled as soon as they were allowed to leave, and most of the metahumans had left too. Frost lounged on the hood of the sportscar, ghosting her fingers inappropriately over her inner thighs. She had hitched her dress up and cut away the cumbersome train, so her legs were daringly bare.

She kept one eye on Ronnie and the other on Harrison. It was important that they keep a close watch on Dr. Wells, since he knew all the inner workings of the Human Shield and could easily deactivate it. 

Ronnie finally left the tarmac and walked back to the parking lot. When he got close enough, he tossed a cell phone at Harrison. They didn’t let Harrison have any personal technology, since a genius like him could do a lot of mayhem with just a bit of tech. Whenever Panoptica or Death Ray had questions for him, they had to call Ronnie or Frost.

Harrison really wasn’t in the mood to talk about the Human Shield right now, especially since he had just seen someone killed by it. But his deal with Zoom was that he would build the Shield then he would get to see Jesse. So he answered the phone.

“Hello,” he said gruffly, expecting another technical question. 

“Daddy?” asked a small voice.

“Jesse?” Harrison put one hand on the car to steady himself as he felt his knees give out in relief.

“One minute,” Ronnie told him. The metahuman looked at his watch to measure the time limit accurately.

“Are you okay?” Harrison put one hand over his mouth to cover his quivering expression. Like he was trying to hide his fear from Jesse, even though she couldn’t see him.

“I’m fine,” she answered in a monotone voice.

Harrison felt a chill as a million terrible scenarios flashed through his mind. The primary one was Zoom looming over Jesse with his vibrating arm, threatening to kill her if she didn’t say what she was told to say.

“Jesse, I’m going to ask you a question. If you’re really okay, I want you to answer it truthfully. But if you’re not, then I want you to lie. Do you understand?”

“Yeah,” Jesse said numbly.

“What did you build for your science project when you were ten years old?” There was a pause on the other end, and Harrison fearfully awaited her answer.

“An oven,” she finally answered. “A solar powered oven. The teacher told us to make it out of tin foil and a pizza box.” Jesse’s voice picked up a bit as she described the science. “But my research showed that thin plexiglass with an aluminum backing provided better reflection and plywood coated with ceramic dust would contain the heat better, so I found some scrap materials from the STAR Labs dumpster and built an oven that could reach over 400 degrees. My teacher took points off since I didn’t follow the assignment, but one of the high school science teachers heard about it, and they let me skip a few grades.”

Harrison slumped back against the car in relief, and a smile ghosted across his face at the fond memory. “I was so proud of you, sweetie. I _**am**_ so proud of you.”

He was pulled back into the present by Ronnie hissing, “Ten seconds.”

Harrison racked his brain for what to say, for how to comfort his only child. “Jesse, don’t worry. I’m going to get you home. I will find a way to get you home. You’re all I care about in the world, and I’ll do anything to get you back.”

“Please, daddy, I want to come home. I don’t want to die. Please, I…”

Then there was a dial tone as the phone call ended. Harrison let the phone fall from his ear, and he stared at it in numb shock. Ronnie stepped forward and gave Harrison’s hand a quick comforting squeeze as he pulled the phone from the scientist’s loose grip. 

“See, Dr. Wells. Compliance will be rewarded,” said Frost as she slithered off the hood, exposing her sparkly thong in the process.

Dr. Harrison Wells looked out across the tarmac, seeing the dark stain where Tony had bled on the pavement. Farther down the runway, Sara Lance’s bones were visible beyond the traffic barrels.

He thought about how many bad things he had let happen to get just one phone call with Jesse. He felt ashamed, and yet, he had no regrets.

Given another chance, he would choose his daughter every single time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CONTENT WARNINGS:  
> Character death  
> Vivid description of corpse  
> Mutilation
> 
> CHAPTER SUMMARY:  
> Black Siren rushes to where her sister burned to death, but Black Siren is not burned. She tries to attack Zoom in retaliation, but she is subdued and taken prisoner.  
> Zoom forces Dr. Harrison Wells to explain to the gathered reporters that the city is surrounded by an invisible force field called the Human Shield. Metahumans can pass through it unharmed, but any objects or regular humans are incinerated.  
> A reporter named Tony Woodward is defiant, so Zoom cuts off some of his fingers.  
> Harrison is allowed to talk to his daughter on the phone as a reward for building the Human Shield.


	3. Fire and Darkness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warnings and chapter summary at the end.

Harrison stood in the empty parking lot in front of STAR Labs. Most of the street lights were burned out since the Labs weren’t operational, so the parking lot was blanketed in darkness.

Laurel Lance sat on the pavement with her legs crossed in a yoga-like pose. She was dressed in her full Black Siren regalia, and her auburn hair hung neatly around her shoulders. The only new addition to her outfit was a black domino mask which outlined her eye sockets. She lifted a large black bucket over her head and dumped its contents on herself. The liquid soaked into her hair and ran down her shiny black uniform and spilled out in tendrils across the asphalt.

Laurel lit a single match and said in an eerily calm voice, “Harrison Wells, you have failed this city.”

She dropped the match into the puddle surrounding her, and the gasoline ignited. The flames instantly spread over the pavement and darted up Laurel’s body. The smell of burning gas followed by burning flesh stung Harrison’s nostrils. 

In the midst of the shroud of bright yellow flames, Laurel sat serenely as a meditating monk. Harrison ran forward with a thick blanket to try to smother the murderous flames, but he knew it was already too late. Just as he was about to drape the blanket over her, her mask and uniform burned away, and Jesse stared up at him out of the fire.

“Harry, what the hell?” said Ronnie in a groggy voice.

Harrison looked over to see Ronnie standing in the doorway of the guest bedroom with a small fireball glowing brightly in his palm. He was using it like a lantern to light up the room.

Harrison focused on the fireball, like a lighthouse guiding him back to shore before he drowned in the terrifying ocean of his nightmare. 

“What happened?” asked Ronnie.

“Nothing,” Harrison muttered in annoyance.

“Come on, Harry. What happened?” Ronnie asked again.

“Nothing, I just - ” Harrison looked behind Ronnie to see Frost leaning in the doorway, dressed in sparse lingerie. “I was dreaming. It’s nothing.”

“Were you dreaming about _me_?” asked Frost, with a flirting lilt to her voice.

Ronnie flipped on the light switch and extinguished his hand. “Go back to bed, baby,” he told her. 

Frost rolled her shoulders like a snow leopard in heat as she turned to leave. Ronnie went over to Harrison and checked on the wrist that was cuffed to the bedpost. The skin was red and scraped where he had yanked on it during his nightmare. They hadn’t had this problem since the first night they had spent with Harrison. Normally, he submitted to the handcuffs willingly and didn’t pull on them during the night.

“What were you dreaming about?” asked Ronnie, keeping his eyes on Harrison’s wrist.

Harrison said nothing.

Ronnie got the key from around his neck and unlocked the cuff. “Give me your other hand,” he ordered, and he cuffed the uninjured wrist.

Harrison looked away and calmed himself down. “Siren. I was dreaming about Black Siren.”

Harrison flinched but then relaxed when Ronnie put his hand on the older man’s shoulder. Ronnie said, “She can’t hurt you. She’s in the Pipeline now, and Panoptica’s guarding her.”

“That’s not the problem,” spat Harrison, and he shook off the comforting hand on his shoulder.

Ronnie said nothing.

Harrison changed the subject. “You said I would get to see Jesse if I built the Human Shield, but you only let me talk to her. I didn’t get to see her.”

“The phone call was just proof of life,” Ronnie explained. “We’re going to wait a bit and make sure the Shield is running smoothly before we let you see her in person. We want to make sure you didn’t sabotage the Shield to stop working after a certain period of time.”

“I wouldn’t risk Jesse’s safety by doing something like that,” replied Harrison firmly. “When will I get to see her?”

“We can’t tell you ahead of time. We don’t want you to come up with a plan to escape with her or anything,” said Ronnie patiently. “Zoom will let you see her.”

Harrison looked up at Ronnie. “Can I really trust that monster?”

“If you don’t trust him, trust me. Jesse’s an innocent young woman. I’ll make sure she comes home safe. You have my word.”

Ronnie was a murderer who was holding him captive and was in league with the metahuman who kidnapped his daughter. But despite all logic, Harrison realized that he trusted Ronnie. 

“I believe you,” said Harrison.

Harrison laid back down on the bed, forced to lie on his side now that his left hand was cuffed to the bedpost. Ronnie intentionally alternated which hand he cuffed every night, to give each wrist a chance to heal if the skin was chafed.

Harrison preferred having his right hand cuffed, since he could sleep on his back pretty comfortably. The left hand meant he had to be on his side or his belly, and he didn’t like either position. Lying face down made him feel like he might suffocate if he turned his head wrong, and lying on his side made him feel like his flank was open.

He knew he could just ask Ronnie to cuff his right hand every night or switch to the opposite bedpost, but then Ronnie would ask why and Harrison didn’t want to explain. He didn’t even want to ask. He already felt like a child, having these two metahumans (both decades younger than him) watching him constantly.

But the worst part of having his left hand cuffed was that he couldn’t pleasure himself. He usually used his left hand, so he could click the computer mouse with his right. Jesse’s mom had died over a decade ago, and he would rather run STAR Labs than venture into the Central City dating scene, so he usually just took care of his needs at night on the internet. It helped him fall asleep, which he really needed on a night like this.

Ronnie clicked off the light, and Harrison heard the door close. But he was surprised when he felt the bed shift as Ronnie climbed into bed with him.

Harrison was tense and suspicious, but he didn’t resist when Ronnie slipped under the covers and pressed up behind him like a spoon. An old calculus joke ran through his mind: I want to be your derivative, so I can lie tangent to your curves. He felt the metahuman’s hand move across his side and curl over his stomach.

“What’s going on?” Harrison asked with annoyance.

“Calm down,” Ronnie admonished tiredly. “Whenever me or Frost have a nightmare, we spoon each other, and it helps us fall asleep.”

Harrison forced himself to lean back against Ronnie’s chest. The metahuman’s superpower meant his body temperature ran a few degrees hot, and he felt warm and comforting against Harrison’s back. The scientist’s flank no longer felt vulnerable, and soon, the exhaustion of the day began to hit him.

Rest came easily, but sleep did not. Harrison lay still and quiet, counting off the seconds, which would add up to minutes, which would add up to hours, and in a few hours, in the morning, he could keep working on getting Jesse home.

Harrison lay still within Ronnie’s embrace and pretended to be asleep. He hoped the metahuman wouldn’t notice he was wide awake. Ronnie’s breath was gentle and steady where it ghosted over Harrison’s ear, so he was pretty sure the younger man was asleep.

Then Ronnie slipped his hand down the front of Harrison’s sweatpants. He squirmed instinctively, but the handcuffs and Ronnie’s muscular body held him in place.

“What are you doing?” he asked in a shocked voice.

“Just relax,” assured Ronnie’s quiet deep voice. “This’ll help you sleep. If you still don’t want this in a couple minutes, I’ll stop.”

Harrison rolled his eyes and forced himself to stop squirming. Ronnie’s touch was soft and gentle at first, and Harrison found himself relaxing into the gentle massage. He began to swell, and he pushed harder against Ronnie’s hand.

“That’s it,” Ronnie praised, and he sped up his strokes.

Soon, Harrison was about to come. Ronnie’s free hand darted over to the bedside table and grabbed some tissues right before the climax. A wave of relaxation and warmth washed over Harrison, and he sank back against Ronnie’s chest. Only to discover that Ronnie had an erection pressing sharply into his back.

Ronnie grabbed a few more tissues and rolled onto his back. A few seconds later, Harrison heard some low thumping as Ronnie gave himself some attention. He came faster than Harrison had, then he wiped himself clean and rolled back into position, pressed against his back again. Harrison still had the warm glow of the orgasm glowing inside him, and he practically snuggled into Ronnie’s embrace. He fell asleep quickly in the metahuman’s arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NOTES:  
> ‘Reacher said nothing.’ is a common phrase in the Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child.  
> Inspiration for Harrison’s nightmare is the [monk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%ADch_Qu%E1%BA%A3ng_%C4%90%E1%BB%A9c) who burned himself alive in protest of the South Vietnamese government.
> 
> CONTENT WARNINGS:  
> Self-immolation within a nightmare  
> Bondage  
> Dubiously consensual handjob
> 
> CHAPTER SUMMARY:  
> Harrison has a nightmare in which Black Siren burns herself alive after telling him he has “failed this city.”  
> Harrison’s screams wake up Ronnie, who comforts Harrison and gives him a handjob to help him sleep.


	4. Kink in the Single Life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is from "Steady, as She Goes" by The Raconteurs.
> 
> Content warnings and chapter summary at the end.

With the Human Shield up and running, Dr. Harrison Wells didn’t have to be at STAR Labs constantly. Death Ray and Panoptica could maintain the Shield on their own. Besides, Team Zoom didn’t trust Harrison enough to let him near the Shield Generator without supervision, out of fear that he might sabotage it and negotiate for his daughter’s release.

All of this meant that Harrison and Ronnie had the day off.

They slept in, and Ronnie made a big brunch. Harrison ate a regular sized meal, but Ronnie chowed down three full plates of bacon, sausage, eggs and toast. The metahuman needed fuel for his fire.

Harrison had learned that Ronnie and Frost never volunteered information. They seemed to enjoy forcing their captive to ask them, or to just leave him in the dark until right before something happened. Harrison was irritated with this immature habit, and he responded with even greater immaturity, by refusing to ask for information unless he absolutely needed it.

So when Ronnie threw a black leather jacket at Harrison and took him out to his motorcycle, Harrison had no idea where they were going.

Deathstorm’s motorcycle was the fire-themed equivalent of Frost’s Ice-cycle. It was bigger and heftier than her bike, but its ostentatious posturing was somehow identical. Deathstorm’s bike was black, with red accents, and when he gunned the engine, orange flames would shoot out the dual exhaust pipes. On the side, the name _‘Fire Bike’_ was emblazoned in phosphorescent paint.

Deathstorm could fly anywhere, of course, but it took less energy and effort to just drive a motorcycle. Also, it was cumbersome to carry a passenger or any cargo or groceries along when he was flying.

Harrison hung on tightly as Deathstorm zoomed at dangerous speeds toward the heart of Central City. _‘Speed limits are for humans,’_ Deathstorm liked to say.

They quickly arrived at their destination. At the end of a side street barely bigger than an alley, there was a discreet store front with tinted black windows. Deathstorm parked right on the sidewalk in front of it and left his keys in the ignition. No one would dare steal Deathstorm’s ride.

The overpowering smell of leather hit Harrison’s nostrils as Ronnie jauntily pushed both doors open and led the way into a long room filled with tables and racks of harnesses, straps, and cuffs. Gleaming buckles, locks and chains provided useful attachment mechanisms, and a wide variety of gags hung cheerily along the back wall. Various nooks and side rooms contained more specialized equipment. Harrison thought he was pretty adventurous with the types of things he looked up online, but he only recognized about a third of the items on display. Above the checkout counter was a sign with the name of the store. _‘Mercury Labs’._

“We’re in the back,” called a friendly female voice. Their arrival had been announced by the bell still tinkling above the front door.

Ronnie ambled towards the back of the store, running his fingers over the various leather harnesses in all colors of the rainbow. “Come on, Harry,” he said over his shoulder, and Harrison reluctantly followed him deeper into the store. 

The back room was similar to the main store, in that every available horizontal and vertical surface along the walls was covered in bondage equipment, and the air was still filled with the scent of leather. But the decor was less polished, and the walls were unpainted.

In the center of the room, behind a wooden workbench covered in various clamps, tools and straps, an older woman with silvery-grey hair was using magnifying glasses to work on a delicate buckle. She got to a stopping point and looked up at her visitors. Her glasses made her eyes look comically enlarged, but somehow, she managed to pull off the look.

“Ronald,” she said warmly in a dignified English accent. She took her glasses off and let them hang on a chain around her neck.

“Hello, Tina,” replied Ronnie, and he leaned down to kiss her chastely on the cheek.

“How is Frost doing? Did she like that jeweled collar I made for her?”

“The collar was perfect,” Ronnie assured her. “But today I’d like you to make some equipment for my friend Harry.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Harrison Wells,” said Tina, and she shook his hand warmly. “I’m Tina or, as I’m professionally known, Lady Mercury. I love it when my men are in leather.”

Tina stroked her fingers along the sleeves of his leather jacket with professional curiosity. Harrison had gotten used to people touching him without his permission, but he found that he actually enjoyed Tina’s gentle but firm touch. Suddenly, she got an odd expression on her face, and she knelt to examine his wrist more closely. She put her magnifying glasses back on and checked his other wrist, too.

“Oh my, Mr. Raymond,” Tina tutted. “You have no idea how to take care of your pets. What the hell are you binding him with?”

“Police issue handcuffs,” replied Ronnie.

Tina whirled on him and began to chastise him with the tone of a judgmental librarian. “Police cuffs are designed for short-term use by trained personnel. Honestly, it’s a wonder you haven’t done any nerve damage!”

Ronnie backed up a step in the face of the woman’s righteous indignation. He spoke quickly and defensively, “That’s why I’m asking you to make him a full set of cuffs. He won’t be able to hurt himself if he’s bound with your leather.”

“Flattery won’t get you far in life. But it’s working this time.” Tina huffed, but her anger was quickly subsiding. “Do you have a color preference?”

Ronnie shrugged and looked at Harrison.

“Black,” muttered Harrison. 

Tina grabbed some sharp shears from her workbench and went over to a table at the back of the workroom. Harrison was startled to realize there was a man with blond hair tied down to the table. He was wearing a white dress shirt with the arms rolled up to his elbows, exposing the shiny bonds around his wrists. Tina cut through these with her shears, and Harrison realized the man had been bound with thick copper wire.

“Is he a metahuman?” Harrison couldn’t help but ask.

“No, I’m just kinky, mate,” answered the man in a cheeky British accent as he pulled his red blindfold down and tightened it around his neck. Harrison realized the blindfold was actually the man’s tie.

Tina unstrapped something that looked like a microphone from the man’s thigh. The head of the microphone thing had been pressed against the man’s crotch, where a stiff bulge was visible within his leather pants. The man rubbed his sore wrists, then reached down, glad to finally be able to touch himself.

“No touching store property,” Tina admonished him, and she gave him a quick slap on the hand.

The man gave her a scandalized look as he hopped off the table and straightened his clothes.

“Go ring up Ronnie at the till. Full set of black cuffs, and the specialty items in the white suitcase under the counter.”

The man walked stiffly back into the store, and Tina called after him, “Good boy, Connie.”

Connie waggled his leather-clad ass a bit to thank her for the praise. Ronnie followed him into the store, and Tina and Harrison were alone.

“Take your jacket and boots off and hop up on the table, love.” Tina indicated a padded worktable. She gathered some supplies while he obeyed her instructions.

She brought over a long strip of high quality black leather. She wound it around one of Harrison’s wrists and marked off its circumference.

“Leather is really the best for bondage. Strong enough to keep someone in place, but flexible enough to not hurt them.” Tina wound the strap around Harrison’s other wrist and made another mark. “I always do each wrist separately. Sometimes there are minor variations in diameter, because of dominant hands or old injuries.”

Harrison found himself mesmerized by her words and manner. He could see why the bound man had enjoyed her attentions.

Tina went over to her workbench and began to use her tools to carefully cut and trim the leather straps. She made sure to turn her body so Harrison could keep watching as she mended the ends so they wouldn’t fray. She grabbed a shiny metal marble from a jar and came back to wrap the first cuff into place.

She held the marble against the gap where the two end of the trimmed strap touched. “Connie isn’t a metahuman,” said Tina. “But I am.”

Harrison watched in fascination as the marble turned to liquid in her fingers, then twisted into place to form a lockable clasp. The metal continued to flow around the length of the cuff, and his wrist was enclosed by a wide metal loop, but his skin was protected by the thick soft leather.

“That’s why they call you Lady Mercury,” Harrison realized aloud. 

“For me, _all_ metals can be liquid at room temperature,” Tina explained. “But I was always Lady Mercury. When the Particle Accelerator exploded, I was making a pair of custom metal cuffs for a customer. When I woke up a few hours later, my hair was silver, and my jewelry and the metal cuffs were in puddles around me.”

A rotatable D-ring formed on the back of the cuff, and a small metal stick with an intricate ring at the end came out of the clasp. Tina concentrated, and the metal solidified. She twisted the metal stick and pulled it out of the clasp, revealing it to be a key for locking the cuff.

She pocketed the key and moved on to the other wrist. Harrison pulled the first cuff up to his face, so he could examine it intimately. The metal work was flawless, and the clasp even had intricate engravings around the keyhole. Tina finished with his other cuff, which was the perfect mirror image of its counterpart.

“Take your shirt off,” she ordered him softly. Harrison found himself obeying without question. He had a black tank top under his shirt, and he started to take it off, too. “Only if you want to,” Tina told him, so he left it on.

“Lay back” was her next order, and she clipped his wrists to each side of the table with carabiners. “You can probably twist around and unclip these, they aren't locked. But I want to test your cuffs to make sure they don’t cut into your skin.”

So Harrison laid still.

Tina ghosted her hands across his shoulders and down his chest. “Your muscles are tense,” she observed. “You can relax while you’re with me.”

So Harrison relaxed.

Tina made cuffs for his ankles, then clipped them in place, too. Harrison enjoyed the delicate caress of her warm hands on his legs. He didn’t realize he was hard until Tina stroked the inside of his thigh.

“Do you want me to help with this?” she asked. “It’s a good way to test your cuffs.”

Harrison nodded, then managed to force out a “Yes.”

“What’s your safe word?” Tina asked, as she undid his fly.

Harrison looked at her quizzically. Tina threw a peeved look at the empty doorway back into the shop, like she was disappointed in Ronnie again.

“It’s a word you say when you want me to stop,” she explained. “Connie’s is ‘ _libertas’_.”

Latin for ‘ _freedom_ , _’_ Harrison’s mind provided. “Okay, I’ll do the same. I’ll say _‘libertas’_ if I want you to stop.” Harrison licked his dry lips before he spoke again. “What do I say when I want you to start?”

Tina smiled and reached into Harrison’s pants to stroke him through his boxers. He exhaled in pleasure and sank deeper into the padded table. Tina was gentler than Ronnie and more precise. Harrison recognized he was in the presence of a master. Or mistress. He didn’t know the right vocabulary.

Tina wasn’t moving quite fast enough for his liking, and his hands pulled up involuntarily to try to touch himself, but the cuffs held him back. Tina placed her hand on his chest and told him, “Patience, darling. Let me control the pace.”

So Harrison relaxed again and let Tina take over.

He had submitted to Ronnie and Frost, and even Zoom, a lot over the past two weeks. It always made him feel defeated and powerless. But with Tina, submission felt like relief. Like all his worries could drift to the back of his mind, and he could trust her to take care of him.

At some point, Tina pulled him free of his boxers, but he didn’t notice until the warm tightness of her mouth wrapped around him. He gasped in surprise, but her hand on his chest told him to relax again. So he closed his eyes and let the gentle waves of pleasure wash over him. He pulled against his cuffs again as he came, but this time, the firm control of the bondage made him feel safe and protected. It took him longer than usual to cum, but he found the slower pace made him feel more satisfied and relaxed.

The next thing he knew, Tina was unclipping his cuffs and helping him sit up. She handed him his clothes and set to work unlocking his cuffs. When she undid the cuff on his right wrist, she ghosted her fingers over his bruised knuckles. “I saw these earlier. What are they from?” she asked gently. 

“Sometimes I get frustrated, and I punch things.” Harrison was surprised by how honest he was being with her.

“Why?” Tina asked without judgment and without eye contact. 

“I ran out of things to throw,” he explained. Throwing inanimate objects just wasn’t enough anymore, so he had resorted to punching things randomly. At first it was just some pillows and couches, but the past few days, he had been punching walls. Ronnie hadn’t noticed the bruises yet, but Harrison knew it was only a matter of time. He was worried Ronnie might order him to stop hurting himself, and he would lose the last outlet for his frustration. 

Tina was putting the cuffs and keys in a nice case, when suddenly a voice piped up from the doorway where Connie was leaning against the door jamb. “Why did he have to take his shirt off?”

 _‘How long had he been watching?’_ Harrison wondered. 

“I like my men to feel vulnerable,” she explained. “Now go fetch Ronald.”

“Ronnie!” Connie called, without even turning his head.

Tina rolled her eyes and dug through a drawer until she found a business card. When Ronnie ducked his head in over Connie’s shoulder, Tina handed him the cuff case and the business card. Ronnie looked at the card quizzically. “Do you not like my physique?” he asked Tina.

“I think Dr. Wells needs an outlet,” she explained.

Ronnie shrugged and beckoned Harrison to come along. The scientist finished pulling on his boots and followed after him. As he got dressed, Harrison was impressed to find that Tina’s restraints hadn't left a mark, despite how firmly they had held him. He straightened his leather jacket and prepared himself to leave this temporary haven. 

Tina caught his hand as he walked by and gave it a quick squeeze. Harrison squeezed back. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NOTES.  
> The jeweled collar Tina mentions is the one at end of Chapter 5 of The White Collar.  
> Connie is the Earth-2 version of John Constantine. Let’s face it, the man looks good in bondage.  
>   
> (From Constantine episode 1.3 "The Devil's Vinyl")  
>   
> CONTENT WARNINGS:  
> Consensual sexual bondage  
> Oral sex  
> Leather kink
> 
> SUMMARY:  
> Ronnie takes Harrison Wells to Tina McGee’s bondage shop, so she can make some leather cuffs for him. Tina is a metahuman who can turn metal into liquid, and she uses this power to make high quality bondage equipment.  
> Tina gets consent from Harrison to test the cuffs by securing him to a padded table and performing oral sex on him. He is impressed that the cuffs don’t even leave a mark on his skin.  
> Harrison confesses to Tina that he has started punching walls to let out his frustration, so Tina gives a business card to Ronnie, explaining that Harrison needs an outlet. As they leave, Tina and Harrison hold hands briefly. (I ship them so hard.)


	5. Moving back and forth with such forceful energy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is from the song 'If I' by Flobots.
> 
> Content warnings and chapter summary at the end.

Back on the motorcycle, with Harrison pressed against his back, Ronnie realized Harrison was as relaxed as he had been last night after the hand job. But over the course of the ride, he got tense again.

When they had first gotten Harry, Ronnie had enjoyed having his ‘tiger in an iron cage.’ But he could tell the constant tension was beginning to wear on him. It couldn’t be healthy.

They had to drive through the center of town to get to their next stop. The streets were still scattered with debris from last night’s riots and protests over the launch of the Human Shield. The metahumans could easily squash any rebellion, but the humans refused to take this lying down. People still tried to fight back, even though it was pointless to go against Zoom and his metahuman army.

Last night, the Pipeline had gotten new prisoners, the hospital had gotten new patients, and the morgue had gotten new corpses. They kept Harrison sheltered from the worst of it, but the man was smart. He knew what was going on.

Ronnie drove them down the street to another store front. This one wasn’t hidden and discreet. It had big picture windows and lots of people (mostly men) using punching bags and sparring in a raised boxing ring in the middle of the room. Ronnie checked to make sure the name matched the business card Tina gave him. _‘Nimbus Gym.’_ They were in the right place.

Once again, Ronnie parked on the sidewalk and left the keys behind. Once again, he pushed both doors open, and once again, Harrison trailed along behind him.

The gym was filled with big, muscular guys, all covered with a thin sheen of manly man sweat as they trained and exercised. But as soon as Deathstorm walked in, everything stopped. They all stared at the powerful metahuman, and the only sound was a single punching bag still squeaking as it swung back and forth. A beefy man in a tight muscle shirt desperately hugged the bag to make it stop squeaking. 

“Everybody out,” Deathstorm ordered, and everyone immediately began to file quickly out the back door. None of them were willing to walk past Deathstorm to go out the front door.

It only took a minute for the whole gym to empty, and soon, the only sound was the rhythmic squeaking as the errant punching bag continued to swing slightly.

Ronnie looked over at Harrison with a mischievous glint in his eyes, like he was proud someone was there to witness him clear out a whole gym.

The metahuman bounced forward like a kid released onto the playground for recess. He found some abandoned boxing gloves and tossed them to his prisoner. Ronnie beckoned the reluctant Harrison over to one of the punching bags in the center of the gym.

Ronnie took up position to brace the punching bag, as Harrison awkwardly pulled the velcro straps tight on his gloves. “Okay, Harry, show me what you got.”

Harrison stared at the eager metahuman. He hated playing along with dumb games, but it might feel good to hit something. So he put his fists up and got onto the balls of his feet.

“That’s the spirit! Come on, Harry.”

Harrison began to jab at the bag with quick light hits. He bounced back and forth, like he was dodging an imaginary opponent. Ronnie cackled in delight. Harrison began to punch harder.

“Pretend the punching bag is someone you hate,” Ronnie urged.

In Harrison’s mind, the bag became Zoom and Killer Frost and Deathstorm in rapid succession. Harrison punched harder.

“Punch as hard as you can.”

Harrison punched harder.

“Harder,” Ronnie told him.

Harrison punched harder.

“Harder!” Ronnie shouted.

Harrison’s fist ripped through the bag’s covering, and his glove got caught inside the tear. He stopped and pulled his gloved hand awkwardly out of the torn bag. Sand bled noisily onto the floor.

“I _think the seam was starting to split_ ,” Harrison suggested. “I guess it's an old bag.”

Ronnie spun the bag around so he could examine the tear. He poked at the ripped seam, and more sand drizzled out. The top of the bag began to collapse in on itself as the filling emptied away, and Ronnie saw something that had previously been tucked behind one of the support chains. A crisp white price tag. 

Ronnie looked over at the panting scientist who had just punched through a brand-new punching bag. Harrison still had his weight on the balls of his feet and was shifting back and forth, trying to burn off the pent up energy he had accumulated over the past few weeks. He didn’t seem to realize that Ronnie was unsettled.

“Um, how about you go punch on a speed bag,” he told Harrison. Frankly, he didn’t feel comfortable standing in the path of any more of the man’s punches.

Harrison went off to find another bag to hit, and Ronnie knocked sand off his boots.

Tina was right. Harrison needed an outlet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NOTES:  
> Harrison isn’t a metahuman, just a very angry guy. Ronnie should to be more scared of the ticking time bomb which is Harrison Wells.  
> Ronnie holding the punching bag and yelling harder until someone punches through the bag, is a reference to the episode when Eddie and Barry worked out together. (Season 1, Episode 6 ‘The Flash is Born’)
> 
> CONTENT WARNINGS:  
> Nothing specific. Just vague threats and an unhealthy relationship.
> 
> CHAPTER SUMMARY:  
> Ronnie takes Harry to a boxing gym, so Harry can blow off some steam by hitting things. (Hitting things! Almost as good as throwing things!)  
> Harry ends up punching through a punching bag, and Ronnie realizes Harry is more dangerous than he thought.


	6. It's just a shot away

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is from the song 'Gimme Shelter' by The Rolling Stones.
> 
> Content warnings and chapter summary at the end.

“Who else are we missing?” asked Detective Iris West-Allen.

“Everyone’s accounted for, partner,” reported Detective Lawton. “They’re here, on the raid, in the hospital, or … ”

Lawton didn’t have to finish the sentence. There were empty spots on the wall next to the brass mural which would soon bear the names of the many officers who had lost their lives in the fight against Zoom. But there hadn’t been time to honor them yet, so for now, they kept pressing forward.

“Go check the comms room, see if there’s anyone on the radio,” she ordered her partner, and he quickly sprinted up the stairs.

Iris looked around at the dismal group of remaining officers. Except for her and Lawton, they were all rookies. Fresh from the Academy and too inexperienced to be sent out on the streets. Their youth had saved them, since Zoom and his army had killed all the beat cops and other detectives.

That’s why the police chief had led a raid with his top lieutenants, based on a tip they had gotten on the location of Zoom’s hideout. It was a Hail Mary, but it was their only chance.

Iris was the highest ranked officer left behind, so it was up to her to keep everyone’s morale up. “I know things look dire right now,” Iris told the gathered rookies.

An explosion outside shook the windows. The launch of the Human Shield a few days ago had ramped up the fighting and ripped open wounds that had been in the process of healing.

Iris continued once the windows had stopped rattling. “But we will stand united and stalwart. The people of this city need us now more than ever, and we will not disappoint them. Now, let’s stay calm and professional, so when the Chief gets back, he’ll find us minding our posts and holding down the fort.”

Just as she finished, the stairwell door banged open. The power outage had knocked out the elevators, so everyone had to run up several flights of stairs to reach the police headquarters.

“Officer Tockman,” Iris said with relief. She strode over and embraced him, thankful that he was alive. She normally didn’t hug, but today wasn't a normal day. “You were supposed to be back an hour ago. Always running late, aren’t you?”

Tockman gave a disturbingly forced laugh at her joke. She always teased him affectionately about his perpetual tardiness, but this was the first time he hadn’t responded with a witty retort. 

She stood back and put her hands on his shaking shoulders. “Where’s Chief Mardon?”

Tockman stared at her with hollow eyes behind his round frames. “He’s dead. They’re all dead.” Now that he had gotten the first few words out, the rest of the story spilled out of him in a panic. “Zoom was going to kill me too - he was going to kill me. He was standing right in front of me, and everyone else was…Zoom left me alive - he told me to come back here - to tell you all what happened. That they’re all dead. I should’ve - I should’ve...”

A flash of blue lightning lit up the darkened Headquarters. Iris drew her service revolver and swept her aim around the room, but Zoom was gone. She turned back to Tockman, only to realize that her friend was staring blindly into the distance.

Tockman fell wordlessly to the ground. The middle of his chest was now a burnt gaping hole.

◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆

Deathstorm landed on the roof of City Hall and casually walked over to the stairwell entrance. He effortlessly melted the lock and jogged down the stairs.

He was in a good mood. The resistance was fizzling out, and Team Zoom was winning. Only the police were holding out against them, but soon, even the CCPD would fall in line. 

◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆

Detective Iris West-Allen stood shell-shocked as the loss of yet another friend burned away part of her soul. She knelt and closed Officer Tockman’s eyes beneath his round wire glasses. His chest was still smoking from Zoom’s impaling arm.

The sound of the stairwell door opening again shocked her out of her mourning, and she stood, half-hoping there was another raid survivor. Instead, Deathstorm waltzed into the police headquarters.

West-Allen aimed her revolver at him, and she could hear the young officers behind her doing the same. Deathstorm raised his hands in ironic surrender.

“We both know you’re more dangerous with your hands up than if you had a gun,” said West-Allen with cold steel in her voice.

“Would you rather I show up armed?” asked Deathstorm. 

West-Allen only cocked an eyebrow.

“I’m here to negotiate a ceasefire,” Deathstorm continued when West-Allen said nothing. He dropped his hands down to his sides and kept his palms pointed behind him as a gesture of peace. “I’d like to speak to the Chief of Police.”

“He’s dead, thanks to your metahuman boss.” West-Allen’s voice had the slightest crack underneath it, but she hid her grief well.

“My condolences, Detective West,” Deathstorm said with cloying mockery. He started to make his way into the darkened bullpen, where the young members of the CCPD shuffled on their feet but kept their weapons trained on him.

“It’s West-Allen, actually,” she corrected. “And evidently, I’m the highest ranked detective still alive, so you can negotiate with me.” She lowered her weapon, and the other officers did the same.

“Zoom doesn’t want anarchy,” Deathstorm began. West-Allen stifled a bark of crazed laughter, but he continued undeterred, “If Zoom wanted all the cops dead, he would kill all the cops. He doesn’t want chaos.”

Behind the detective, another burning car exploded and threw its jagged light through the cracked windows.

“Not _complete_ chaos,” Deathstorm clarified. “The truth is, we _like_ this town. You’ve got jazz lounges, science labs, football games, and you’ve got humans. What’s the point of ruling, if there’s no one to rule?”

“So, what’s his proposal?” West-Allen demanded. 

“Let the human cops deal with human criminals, and let the metahumans deal with metahuman criminals,” he said simply.

“And how exactly are these metahuman criminals going to be dealt with?”

“Zoom has shown that he is more than willing to kill metahumans who don’t obey him, and he has a Pipeline full of prison cells, ready to be occupied by those who commit lesser offenses.”

“You think I’m just going to hand this city over to that Speedster freak,” spat West-Allen.

“If you don’t hand it over, Zoom will take it by force. All your little cop friends will end up like this idiot.” Deathstorm nudged the impaled body on the floor, careful to not get blood on his boot.

West-Allen saw that her partner was cautiously descending the flight of stairs. “Anyone still on the radio? Any survivors?” she asked him. Detective Lawton shook his head wordlessly.

“This deal won’t last forever. Zoom needs an answer,” Ronnie told her, and he brushed some dust off his sleek black jacket.

West-Allen looked over the fearful faces of all that was left of the CCPD. They were so young, and they were all looking to her for leadership. She couldn’t let them down like she had Tockman and the others. Finally, her eyes rested on Lawton’s honest face. He looked back at her with eyes full of pain, but also trust in her leadership. He gave her a quick nod, and her mind was set. 

“I accept,” she said with weary resignation. “Now, will you please go? We have a city to protect.” Outside, the crashes and booms of the clashing sides continued. West-Allen turned her back and started to walk back into the darkened, decimated bullpen.

“Oh, Detective,” he called after her, “I’m afraid I’m going to need a bit more from you.”

West-Allen stopped but didn’t turn around. He swaggered up to her and leaned over her shoulder to put his lips right next to her ear. “If we are going to let you run this department, we need to know that you have truly submitted to the New Zoom Order. And we need to make sure you’ll behave yourself.”

“I’ll behave,” West-Allen said between clenched teeth.

Deathstorm ignored her. “Now, when Zoom gave me the job of keeping CCPD-lite in line, he didn’t specify how. Thankfully, I’ve come up with a nonviolent solution. Or at least, non-homicidal.”

A million terrible scenarios ran through Iris West-Allen’s mind, but none were as bad as what Deathstorm was about to demand.

Deathstorm crooned into her ear. “You see, with every deal, there comes a catch.”

“What’s the catch?” Detective West-Allen asked, a hint of fear finally making its way into her voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CONTENT WARNINGS:  
> Murder
> 
> CHAPTER SUMMARY:  
> Detective Iris West-Allen is the highest ranked officer in the police station. Officer Tockman returns to inform her that she is now the highest ranked officer in the city, since Zoom has killed all the top brass. Then Zoom shows up to kill Tockman, now that he has served his purpose and delivered his message.  
> Deathstorm shows up next and offers a truce to Iris. Let the metahumans deal with metahuman crimes, and the humans can deal with human criminals. Iris agrees, but Deathstorm’s deal comes with a catch.


	7. Frost in Heat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warnings and chapter summary at the end.

“I’m home,” Ronnie called into the dark house. No one called back.

He dropped his motorcycle keys on the kitchen counter and made his way back to the bedrooms. He finally found a light on in the master bathroom, and he pushed open the door to be greeted by a rather interesting sight.

Dr. Harrison Wells knelt in the middle of the bathroom floor, with his hands cuffed in front of him. In the circle of his arms, Killer Frost stood with her legs spread far apart. Her hand was buried deep in Harrison’s unruly hair, and she was pressing his face into her crotch. Her head was thrown back in wild sexual abandon, but at the sound of Ronnie entering the room, she whipped her head around.

Harrison’s dark-framed glasses were perched on her nose, giving her a Hipster Elsa look. “Hey, baby,” she greeted in a voice throaty with sexual arousal.

God, she was hot. He found himself drawn to her like metal to a magnet. He pressed himself against her side and slipped his tongue between her frigid lips. She moaned against his mouth, and he felt her tongue warm up as his heat flowed into her. 

He broke the kiss reluctantly and looked deep into her dilated eyes. “I have to go check on Harry. Be right back.” He gave her a quick peck on the tip of her cold nose, before he knelt down to Harrison’s level.

Frost untangled her grip from the scientist’s hair, then immediately slid her hand down the front of her thong so she could continue the stimulation.

Harrison squinted a bit so he could see Ronnie without his glasses.

“How are you doing, Harrison?” Ronnie asked, as he checked the older man’s face for any signs of frostbite.

“I’m fine,” Harrison told him stoically.

Ronnie held Harrison’s chin and used it to tilt his head around to search for damage. “Do you want me to make her stop?”

“If you want to help me, help me get my daughter back,” Harrison told him for the millionth time, and he yanked his chin out of Ronnie’s grip.

“I’m almost through.” Frost’s voice floated down from above them.

“How is he not dead?” Ronnie asked without taking his eyes off Harrison. 

“Death Ray made me a thong out of cold-proof fabric. Now Harry can lick me for hours without getting hurt.” Frost pressed Harrison’s face against her pussy again. “I need Ray to make me another pair. I’ve been putting this one through the wringer.”

Ronnie made a mental note to himself to reduce how much time Frost was alone with Harrison. This was getting out of hand. But right now, there were more pressing matters.

Ronnie pressed his warm body against Frost’s back, letting his body heat seep into her. He leaned down and began to suck on her neck, planning on leaving a serious hickey behind. He liked marking his territory.

With one hand, Ronnie pinched his lover’s nipple. He slid his other hand into her thong and played with the tuft of pale white hair right above her slit. Then he went lower and thumbed at her clit while Harrison worked right below his fingers on the other side of the thong. Between the two of them, it didn’t take long for Frost to come. A cloud of icy breath came out of her mouth as she sighed in ecstatic afterglow. 

Ronnie let Harrison keep the pleasure-drunk Frost on her feet, while he grabbed the keys off the bathroom counter and worked on unlocking the cuffs. Then he guided Frost over to the wall and let her lean back against it while the last shivers of icy pleasure ran through her system.

Harrison climbed to his feet on his own power, refusing to let Ronnie help him. He massaged his wrists slightly and stared at his captor, awaiting orders.

Ronnie handed him his glasses. “I’m sorry Frost keeps doing stuff like this to you. I have a plan to make her stop.”

“Do you really think _this_ is what I fucking care about?” spat Harrison.

Ronnie ignored his vitriol. “Go to bed, Harry. I need to talk to Frost alone.”

Harrison stomped off to his room, and Ronnie turned back to Frost. He stood in front of her and put one hand on the wall on either side of her head. She stared up at him without fear, but with a fair amount of post-orgasmic relaxation.

“Forcing Harrison to give you oral isn’t part of the job,” he told her.

“What’s the point in having a puppy if I can’t play with him?” pouted Frost.

“You might hurt him by accident,” Ronnie told her.

Frost traced a tantalizing finger over the nascent bulge in Ronnie’s pants. “You spend more time with Harrison than you do with me. My loins are getting frosty from neglect.”

Ronnie gripped her between her legs, and she gasped as he put pressure on her still sensitive sex. “If you want to be punished, you don’t have to misbehave. All you have to do is ask.”

“Fine, this is me asking.” Frost rutted against his harsh grip. “Punish me.”

Ronnie looked down at her sternly. “I promise I’ll find you a fun toy to play with. Until then, you’re mine and only mine.” And with that, he threw her over his shoulder and carried her into the master bedroom as she squealed in delight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CONTENT WARNINGS:  
> Non-consensual oral sex  
> Vivid description of oral sex on a woman  
> Handcuffs
> 
> SUMMARY:  
> Ronnie returns to the Wells mansion to find Killer Frost forcing Harrison to give her oral sex. Ronnie helps her finish, then sends Harrison off to bed so he can ‘speak privately’ with Frost.
> 
> Visit me on [Tumblr](https://theboundbandit.tumblr.com/).


	8. AWOL

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warnings and chapter summary at the end.

The phone had to ring twice before Ronnie finally rolled over to pick it up. Frost was conked out on his chest, and it was awkward to put the phone to his ear and say, “Hello?”

“It’s one in the morning. Do you know where your prisoner is?” asked Panoptica in a sing-song voice.

Ronnie was awake instantly. He pushed Frost off his chest as gently as he could then ran barefoot and shirtless into Harrison’s room. Only to find the bed empty and the open leather cuff dangling from the bedpost. Usually Harrison cuffed himself, and Ronnie would check on him. But tonight, he was pretty tired from a long day of helping quell the city’s unrest. Then Frost had done that thing with her tongue and he was just done for.

“Check surveillance footage around the city. Check downtown, check STAR Labs and the Jitterbug, check everywhere,” Deathstorm ordered Panoptica as he ran through the rest of the house.

There was no way Harrison could have gotten out of the house without setting off the alarm system. The alarm system Deathstorm had forgotten to set when he got home. Damn it! He kicked himself for being so forgetful. He had been too pumped from his meeting with Detective West and the deal he had made with her.

The kitchen was empty, and the living room just had the local news playing on mute. A reporter was standing in front of City Hall, and a chyron along the bottom of the screen described the annihilation of the police force. A makeshift memorial had sprung up on the City Hall steps, which were now scattered with a colorful mix of flowers, candles and cards.

A knot began to form in Ronnie’s stomach as he found more and more empty rooms in the house. He was just supposed to guard Harrison and keep him in line, but it was impossible for Ronnie to spend so much time with someone and not get attached. He was worried about Harrison.

Deathstorm continued to speak desperately into the phone. “Call in the troops, we’re going to start a manhunt. I’ll grab Frost, I can do a sweep of the city with her…”

“Calm down, Worry-storm,” Panoptica finally told him. “I know exactly where Harry is.”

“Where?” Deathstorm demanded.

“Under my boot,” she said with a husky chuckle. Then she hung up.

◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆

At STAR Labs, Dr. Harrison Wells tried to shift against the cold concrete floor, but Panoptica pressed her stiletto heel harder into his shoulder. He grit his teeth to not cry out.

“What did you think you were doing, baby?” she asked him in a cooing voice.

He twisted his head around to glare up at her. Her hair was down and messy, and she wore panda-themed pajamas, which contrasted ironically with her thigh-high leather boots. Evidently, she had been fast asleep when he had triggered whatever burglar alarm she had set up in the STAR Labs vault. 

Panoptica waited a few more seconds for his answer, then she put one hand on the wall to steady herself while she used her boot to flip him over onto his back. Harrison knew better than to fight back right now. It was never a good idea to antagonize a bitchy metahuman.

“What were you doing in the vault?” she asked, this time with a sharper edge to her voice. 

Harrison continued to stare up at her stoically. His lips were pressed together with determination. He wasn’t going to fight back, but he wasn’t going to talk either.

“Well, if you aren’t going to use your mouth to answer me…” Panoptica knelt down and removed Harrison’s belt.

He shifted a bit but didn’t fight her. He watched her every move like a caged dog, and she liked being watched like that.

“Roll over,” she ordered him, and he warily rolled to lie on his stomach. “Good boy.”

She pulled his hands behind him and used the belt to strap them together. Then she walked over to stand in front of him, letting her heels click sharply on the concrete floor.

“Kiss me.” She waggled her boot to make it clear where exactly he was supposed to kiss her. 

He stared up at her for a second, like he was half-hoping she was kidding. But she just raised one eyebrow and nodded for him to begin. So he bowed his head and gave the top of her foot a quick peck. 

Panoptica rolled her eyes. She braced herself against the wall again, so she could lift her free foot and press it against the back of his head. His lower face was smushed against her boot, and he squirmed and tried to turn away. She even heard him growl a bit, but when she relieved the pressure on his head, he didn’t pull his lips away from her boot.

“Start moving up,” she ordered.

He awkwardly scooched forward on the ground and began to kiss around her ankle. “Not too fast,” she clarified, so he hung out there for a while before continuing his trip north. She could barely feel him through the thick leather, but the sight of a submissive man turned her on.

He took a quick break to shift into a kneeling position, which was awkward without the use of his hands. He left a trail of unenthusiastic kisses up her calf, and soon, he was over her knee and almost to the top of her boot. He slowed down and looked up at her, hoping she would let him stop now.

“Keep going,” she ordered and began to toy with the waistline of her black pajama bottoms. A panda paw print decorated the leg of her shorts. Harrison gave her a brief but acidic glare, then started to lightly kiss the small patch of bare skin between her boot and her shorts. She pulled the leg of her shorts up, so he would have more room to work. 

He kissed all the way to the bottom of her hiked up shorts before she shooed him away. He sat back on his heels, staring up at her with weary unamusement. Then she pulled her shorts down and let them fall to the ground around her boots. Her lacy red thong quickly followed.

She stepped forward, leaving her garments behind on the concrete floor. She stood with one of her boots between Harrison’s knees, so her crotch was right at eye level for him.

“You might need to use your tongue for the next round of kissing,” she informed him.

He stared up at her with a clenched jaw and shook his head with staunch determination. Panoptica gave him a sad smile and tilted her head sympathetically, like he was a wayward toddler who didn’t understand why he had to go to bed now. She crouched down to his level and caressed the side of his face. He didn’t jerk away from her hand, and he didn’t take his eyes off her.

“I’m going to get what I want from you, even if I have to force a ring gag into this pretty little mouth of yours.” She teased the tip of her finger against the corner of Harrison’s pursed lips.

Then Harrison headbutted her.

Panoptica shrieked in surprised pain and almost lost her balance. She staggered to her feet and held her hand over her tender nose. Tears sprung to her eyes, and she fought not to cry. She was a dangerous and dignified metahuman, dammit! She couldn’t let this puny human show her up.

Harrison stared up at her defiantly from where he knelt on the ground. His arms were still bound behind him.

Panoptica growled in anger as she whipped her glasses off. A dangerous light kindled deep in her eyes as her metahuman power awakened. Just as she was about to unleash her blinding rage upon him, a voice shouted, “Stop!”

Without thinking, she darted her gaze over to the voice, and her blast tore a jagged hole through the metal fire door.

Deathstorm stood right next to the door with fireballs spinning in both hands. “Stop,” he repeated.

Panoptica put her glasses back on and took a deep breath. They were on the same side, she reminded herself. Friendly fire accomplished nothing.

She swallowed around her rage and tried to act cool. “You need to keep your prisoner on a better leash. Honestly, did you even know he was gone?”

“Why were you about to heat vision him?” Deathstorm asked, ignoring her question.

“He headbutted me,” she protested and gestured to her nose, which had the slightest hint of red around it.

Deathstorm gave her ‘injury’ a doubtful look. “Why did he headbutt you?”

Panoptica paused for a second, trying to come up with a reasonable lie. “I was trying to make him do penance for his crimes. But he was...refusing to cooperate.”

“What kind of penance?” asked Deathstorm, looking down.

She gingerly touched her nose, trying to buy time to make something up. Then she felt the cool breeze on her inner thighs and belatedly remembered her lack of pants.

“I don’t think you would want that kind of penance, if you knew where his mouth had been recently,” Deathstorm informed her, as he gazed with calm appreciation at her shaved pussy.

Panoptica clapped her hand over the front of her crotch and backed up awkwardly to where she had left her clothing. She pulled the bottom of her shirt down, mentally kicking herself for buying midriff baring pajamas. 

She squatted down awkwardly in her high stilettos, snatching her shorts and thong up with her free hand. Harrison smirked at her, so she swatted at him, accidentally using the hand she had been covering herself with. 

She staggered around, struggling to slip her impractical heels into her lacy thong. As she got dressed, Ronnie helped Harrison to his feet and unbuckled the belt which trapped his hands behind him.

Harrison set to work putting his belt back on and made his way to the exit, but Ronnie trailed behind contemplatively. “Panoptica, I might need a babysitter tomorrow night. Me and Frost have to receive a delivery.”

Panoptica was finally dressed. “Yeah, I can watch Harry.”

“Can I trust you not to disintegrate him?”

Panoptica nodded. “You can trust me.”

Harrison stood at the exit, gesturing angrily to the still smoking hole in the fire door, as if to remind Ronnie of Panoptica’s fiery personality and lack of self control. 

“I _was_ going to leave you alone at the house tomorrow, maybe locked in your room or cuffed to the bed. But then you ran away from home, so that plan’s out the window,” Ronnie told him irritatedly. “Why the hell did you come here anyway?”

Harrison kept his mouth shut resolutely. 

“He was in the vault when I found him,” Panoptica said, after Harrison refused to answer. “But I’m not sure what he took.”

Ronnie rolled his eyes. He would get the truth eventually. For now, he grabbed Harrison by the arm and dragged him roughly out of the room.

“See you tomorrow, Harry,” Panoptica called after them.

◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆

When they reached the STAR Labs lobby, Ronnie decided they had put enough distance between them and Panoptica that Harrison might be willing to talk. He stopped and faced the scientist, asking, “What did you take from the vault, Harry?”

Harrison stared at him but didn’t answer.

Ronnie sighed in frustration. He turned Harrison around and ordered him to assume the position. He quickly patted down him down and found something in Harrison’s jacket pocket.

Ronnie fished out the object, which turned out to be a set of keys. Keys he recognized. Keys to his motorcycle.

“This is how you got here?” Ronnie snapped at Harrison, who shrugged unapologetically. “This is my personal bike! You broke the first rule of the bro-code: don’t ride each other’s bikes or bitches!”

Ronnie grabbed him by the arm again and dragged him outside, where the Fire Bike was parked right by the door. At least Ronnie didn’t have to fly home with a passenger while he was tired and grumpy.

◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆

Back at the house, Ronnie didn’t let Harrison out of his sight. He let the man get ready for bed, and when it came time for Harrison to change clothes, he still didn’t leave.

Harrison took off his jacket and boots, but he was reluctant to strip down any further with Ronnie watching him like a hawk. Harrison waited a few moments, like he was expecting Ronnie to at least turn around.

“Privacy is a privilege, Harry. Not a right,” Ronnie informed him. “Either change in front of me or sleep in your clothes.”

Harrison defiantly sat on the bed, awaiting whatever restraints Ronnie decided to apply. Ronnie shrugged and started to secure Harrison’s wrists to the opposite bed posts, so Harrison was stretched out on his back with his arms out to either side. Then Ronnie opened a drawer to get the other cuffs Tina had made. He locked these around Harrison’s ankles and chained them to the bottom bedposts. Harrison was stretched out on the bed in a strict spread eagle tie, and he grunted when Ronnie pulled the last chain as tight as he could.

Ronnie flopped down on the bed right next to Harrison and waited until the mattress had stopped bouncing. He put one hand on the bed on the other side of Harrison and leaned down so they were eye to eye.

“What’s going on, Harry? You’ve been sulking ever since I picked you up.” Ronnie had hoped Harrison would volunteer an explanation for his midnight run, but no information was forthcoming. It was time for more aggressive measures.

Harrison was pinned in place like a bug in an entomologist’s display case. Ronnie lit a fireball over the bound man and studied Harrison’s face in the firelight. His eyes reflected the glowing flame, and he looked wary but not terrified.

Ronnie made a fist and snuffed out the flame. This wasn’t good. Ronnie couldn’t do any serious damage to Harrison without permission from Zoom. The implied threat of burning wasn’t working, so he needed a new tactic.

Not much phased Harrison. He endured captivity, bondage, frostbite, and boot worship. Reacting with nothing more than some ill-advised insults. Harrison had only one button that Ronnie could push, so Ronnie pushed it.

“Tell me what you took, or I won’t let you see Jesse.”

The mention of his daughter finally got a reaction out of the bound man. Harrison tugged instinctively at his bonds, even though he knew they were inescapable. 

“You seeing Jesse isn’t very high on Zoom’s priority list. The only one pushing for your reunification is me.” Ronnie let some anger enter his voice. “And you just did something I told you not to do.”

Harrison breathed through his nose with quick and shallow breaths, and he listened to Ronnie with rapt attention. But still he said nothing.

“But there’s a way to get back on my good side.” Ronnie relaxed his posture and voice. “All you have to do, is tell me what you took from the vault.”

Harrison’s gaze flitted back and forth between Ronnie’s right and left eyes, like he was searching for any sign of deception. He finally broke eye contact and looked farther down the bed. He canted one of his hips off the bed.

Ronnie had to lean forward in order to slide his hand into Harrison’s tight pocket. His head was almost touching Harrison’s lips, which were pressed tightly together. Ronnie kicked himself for not doing a more thorough pat down earlier. He had gotten so angry after he found his bike keys that he forgot to continue the search.

He pulled a scratched and bent aluminum bracelet out of Harrison’s pants pocket. The bracelet looked cheap and old, with some rust forming around the serial number stamped onto the pliable metal.

Ronnie held it up to the light and twirled it around his finger a couple times. “This is a soldier’s id bracelet,” he said. “To identify them if they were killed in battle. My aunt wore my uncle’s bracelet after he died in the War of the Americas.”

He stared at Harrison contemplatively, trying to put the pieces together. “This belonged to your brother? I read he was KIA at the Battle of Panama.”

Ronnie remembered what had been playing on the news in the living room. “You were going to leave this at the memorial for the dead policemen.”

Harrison shifted uncomfortably and looked away, which was the same as a yes. Ronnie smiled broadly, proud of himself for figuring it out.

“That’s actually kind of sweet, Harry.” Ronnie planted a goodnight kiss on Harrison’s clenched jaw. “Next time, just ask.”

As a reward for giving up the bracelet, Ronnie set to work unchaining Harrison’s legs from the bedposts, but then he chained them together. Harrison lay on the bed like a horizontal Y. The spread eagle tie had been too harsh, but Harrison still needed to learn his lesson. Running away was a big no-no.

Ronnie flicked off the light as he left. Harrison lay on the bed in darkness and leather bondage. He didn't like this position. His sides felt exposed, and his shirt had ridden up, so he could feel cool air on his abdomen. He hated this feeling of vulnerability.

He hated how powerless he felt when people tied him up and touched him. He hated that Zoom had forced him to help takeover the city. He hated that he didn’t know where Jesse was.

But despite all of that, he smiled. Because his plan had worked.

Harrison listened carefully to the sounds of Ronnie returning to the master bedroom and closing the door. Then he wiggled up to the top of the bed and twisted his head around to look down into the gap between the bed and the wall. He could barely see Jesse’s necklace where he had hidden it last week.

Harrison worked the Polarity Reverser in his mouth out between his teeth, then carefully dropped it down next to the necklace. He could scavenge most of the items he needed for his plan from around the house, but there were only a few Polarity Reversers in the world. Thankfully, one of them had been in the STAR Labs vault.

He whispered into the darkness, “Hang on, Jesse. Just hang on.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CONTENT WARNINGS:  
> Boot kissing  
> Domination
> 
> CHAPTER SUMMARY:  
> Panoptica catches Harrison breaking into the STAR Labs vault, and she forces him to kiss her thigh-high boots as punishment. He complies, but when she orders him to perform oral on her, he refuses. She is about to heat vision him, when Deathstorm shows up. Deathstorm takes Harrison home and chains him tightly to the bed. Harrison finally admits what he took from the vault: a soldier’s bracelet he was going to leave at a memorial. But Harrison also took a second item from the vault, and somehow, it will help him save Jesse.


	9. The Catch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PREVIOUSLY ON ‘BRIDGE ACROSS THE VOID’  
> (The next couple of chapters reference the events of ‘The White Collar,’ which is Part 1 of this series. The relevant events are explained in the text, but here’s a full summary in case you’re curious.)  
> Detective Iris West-Allen foils Killer Frost’s jewelry heist, so Frost goes to the West-Allen residence to kill Iris. Instead, she finds Iris’s husband Barry, and she tries to kill him with a freezing kiss, only to discover he is a metahuman who can heal rapidly. This makes him the only man besides Ronnie who she can kiss without killing him.  
> Frost ties Barry up and molests him to get revenge on Iris, but she is surprised by how much she enjoys Barry’s sweet and innocent nature. Frost is about to have sex with Barry, but he tries to stop her because he is a married man. She gets mad and is about to stab him in the heart with an ice knife, when Iris shows up and shoots Frost in the arm. Frost runs away, but a few days later, the West-Allens receive a package containing a white leather collar, decorated with some of the diamonds from the necklace Frost tried to steal.
> 
> As always, chapter summary and content warnings at the end.

It was a dark and cloudy night. Not even the moon could light up the street. Orange halogen street lights made valiant attempts at illumination, but their light was quickly sucked up by the fog.

Through the murky curtain of fog drove a police car with a soft curve to its chassis. It pulled into the STAR Labs parking lot and approached the back loading docks. Its wheels crunched slowly over the chunks of gravel which dotted the neglected pavement. The car moved sluggishly, like it was reluctant to arrive at its destination.

The figures of Deathstorm and Killer Frost gradually loomed out of the orange gloom. The car’s headlights lit them up, but neither squinted in the sudden light. Because villains never squint in the light. 

The police car finally rolled to a stop, several yards from the supervillains. Detective Iris West-Allen got out of the front passenger door and stood for a moment, staring stoically at the pair. Then she opened the back door and pulled out the handcuffed passenger. The young man was blindfolded and gagged, but Killer Frost recognized him immediately. Bartholomew Henry West-Allen. But most people called him Barry.

Frost had met Barry a few months back, when she got revenge on Detective West by molesting her husband. Barry had participated enthusiastically. After she froze him to a chair and threatened to kill him.

The supervillainess hadn’t gone near Barry since her little home visit. She knew Ronnie was a jealous lover, so she decided to keep her distance from the detective’s beautiful little boy toy. 

Frost moved to stand in front of her lover and leaned back against him. He automatically wrapped his arms around her, and she pulled his hands up to her breasts. He massaged them with slow circles, and she ground her ass back against him as she got more and more excited by the turn of events. Ronnie smiled. He liked making his woman happy.

The driver got out of the car, and Frost recognized him as Detective Floyd Lawton, Iris’s partner. Frost blew a smooch at him, and he looked away with an embarrassed smile. Unfortunately, he wasn’t on the menu tonight. Iris nodded at her partner, and Lawton looked at her with wordless solidarity before getting back in the car.

Iris kept her hand firmly wrapped around her husband’s cuffed arm. She guided him forward to stand at the edge of the headlight beams.

“How does this work?” Iris asked in a clipped, professional tone.

“Up to you, babe,” Deathstorm murmured down at Frost.

“I think we need to search him for trackers and bugs,” replied Frost. “Search him _thoroughly_.” She rolled her shoulders against her man’s chest as she made this last comment.

“He might get cold out here,” replied Deathstorm. Frost’s smile started to fade before he continued. “There are some labs inside, if you want a flat surface. Go pick one out.” He nudged her towards the loading dock.

Frost tried to swagger with dramatic confidence, but she was so excited that there was an undignified hop in her step. Deathstorm tilted his head to indicate to Iris that she should follow Frost into the building.

Iris had hoped to hand over her husband and leave, but she knew the metahumans would make this as excruciating as possible for her and Barry. She breathed deeply and reminded herself to be professional. She followed Frost into the building. Without looking back, she knew that Deathstorm had fallen into line behind them.

Barry’s wingtips slipped a bit on the wet pavement, but Iris kept a firm grip on his arm. He walked so confidently, even while blindfolded and bound, because he trusted her so completely. And here she was, about to hand him over to a pair of sadistic supervillains. 

◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆

_24 Hours Earlier:_

Deathstorm crooned into Detective West-Allen’s ear. “You see, with every deal, there comes a catch.”

“What’s the catch?” Iris demanded.

“We need collateral. We need something you will do anything to keep safe. We need…” Deathstorm’s eyes fell on the young man who had quietly snuck down from the forensic lab upstairs and was now peering over the bannister of the lobby stairs. “We need Mr. Barry West-Allen.”

“Over my dead body!” said Iris West-Allen with dangerous determination.

“Okay, nevermind. Deal’s off,” said Deathstorm nonchalantly, and he swaggered off towards the stairwell with his hands shoved in his pockets. “Zoom will just keep killing cops until there’s none of you left, and then they’ll be no one to protect the citizenry.”

“Wait!” called Barry desperately. “Wait,” he said again, as he clattered down the rest of the stairs in his wingtips.

Deathstorm turned back reluctantly and watched as Iris West-Allen rushed over to put herself between him and her husband.

“You can’t have him!” Iris declared, and she aimed her revolver at Deathstorm again.

“Iris, it’s okay,” said Barry. He came around so Iris could see him, but she didn’t take her eyes off her target. “Iris, this is the best deal we’re likely to get. This is the only way to keep the city safe, to keep our friends safe.” Barry looked mournfully at Officer Tockman’s dead body.

Iris finally tore her eyes away from Deathstorm and looked into Barry’s honest hazel eyes. “I can’t lose you,” she told him quietly.

“You won’t,” he assured her. “I can’t get hurt. At least, not permanently.”

“We don’t know what your limits are,” Iris reminded him.

“You and me, we’ve survived everything this world has thrown at us so far. We can survive a little more. You need to trust that I will find my way back to you.” Barry put one hand on Iris’s shoulder. She nodded without words.

“Okay, let’s go,” said Deathstorm, and he started forward to collect his hostage.

“No,” Barry said firmly. “I need 24 hours to put my affairs in order.”

The villain stopped, a bit shocked by the young man’s assertiveness. He made a mental note to never underestimate a man in a bow tie again. “How do I know you’ll show up?” he asked suspiciously.

Barry paused for a second, then replied with conviction, “Because I won’t fail this city.”

Deathstorm shrugged. “Okay, 24 hours, STAR Labs loading docks.”

“We’ll be there. You have our word,” said Barry. Iris still had her revolver aimed right at Deathstorm’s head.

Deathstorm turned to leave again. “By the way,” he said over his shoulder. “Frost prefers her presents to be gift-wrapped.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CONTENT WARNINGS:  
> Bondage: handcuffs, blindfold, gag  
> Prisoner transfer
> 
> CHAPTER SUMMARY:  
> Iris delivers her husband Barry as a hostage to Killer Frost and Deathstorm. A flashback reveals that Iris initially refused to hand him over, but Barry insisted in order to keep the city safe.


	10. Ebony and Ivory

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title is from ‘Ebony and Ivory’ by Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney. Although personally, I prefer the [Psych rendition](https://youtu.be/ZvM3RHLyzOo).
> 
> Content warnings and chapter summary at the end.

Killer Frost made her way down the cold creepy corridor deep under STAR labs. Condensate dripped down from the various overhead pipes and collected in puddles along the concrete floor. Her stylish but impractical heels clicked loudly, and the austere hallway echoed her footsteps back with hollow reverberation.

She quickly picked one of the first laboratories for the inspection. It had a stainless steel table in the middle, about the size of a full-sized mattress, but longer. Much longer. She was going to need the length, what with the lanky dimensions of her new pet. 

Iris followed her into the lab, still leading Barry along, careful to not let him stub his toe or hit his head. Even with full sight he was clumsy, so the blindfold really didn’t help matters.

Frost patted the stainless steel lab table, but Iris came to a halt, reluctant to put her husband there. The protective detective heard a clunk as Deathstorm closed the heavy door and took up position in front of it. At some point, he had picked up a white metal suitcase, which he now held in front of him with both hands. He watched Iris with a smirk on his face, reminding her that she couldn’t back out of this. Iris gripped Barry’s arm tighter, not wanting to ever let him go.

“We just need to search him,” Frost assured them, but her eyes were filled with wicked intentions.

Iris guided Barry forward again and helped him hop up on the table. He sat on it with his legs dangling off the edge, like a toddler about to get a booster shot and a lollipop. His feet swung back and forth slightly. 

Frost held out her hand to Iris without looking. Iris handed over the keys, and Frost proceeded to relieve Barry of his handcuffs. 

Iris turned to leave, but Deathstorm didn’t move from his position in front of the door. “I haven’t dismissed you yet, Detective,” said Frost coldly. Then her tone warmed up, “Why don’t you stay and supervise? If I go too far, you can tell me to stop.”

Iris knew that if she said a word, Barry would be punished for her transgression. She went back to stand in front of the table, far enough away to give Frost room to work, but close enough to see everything.

Frost stood in front of Barry and parted his thighs a bit. She ran her fingers lightly over his equipment, feeling him up through his starched and pressed pants. His posture stiffened a bit, but otherwise, he did nothing to resist her. She pushed him down on the table sideways and helped him lay out flat. She pulled his hands up above his head, noticing a support bar which ran around the perimeter of the table. It would provide a convenient attachment point for any restraints she wished to apply, but there was a slight problem.

“Ronald,” she called over her shoulder. “Do you see any zip ties or rope lying around?”

“I have something even better, my darling.” Ronnie swaggered over and put the white suitcase on a wide instrument shelf along the side of the table. He opened it for her with a flourish, and the suitcase laid open flat on the metal shelf. Inside there were indentations lined with white velvet, and each indentation contained a different piece of bondage equipment. A harness gag, a cock cage, four leather cuffs and at the very top, an extravagant collar. All the metal was bright silver, and all the leather was a vivid royal blue.

Frost looked up at him with a question in her eyes. Ronnie knew immediately what she wanted to know. “I requested white,” he explained. “But Tina insisted on blue. She said you would thank her later.”

Frost shrugged and decided to give it a try. She trusted Tina’s aesthetic judgment, since the dominatrix had made a lot of bespoke gear and toys for her and Ronnie, including the white collar she had sent to Barry a few months ago.

Frost selected the collar to try first. There was a subtle filigree carved into the leather. She used the silver buckle to secure it around Barry’s neck, and his Adam’s apple bobbed nervously as he was collared. Frost ground her hips at the sight of blue leather contrasting marvelously with the pale skin of her perfect little submissive.

“My compliments to Lady Mercury. She does have good taste.” Frost’s words were sly and aloof, but her tone had a quiver to it that she was unable to hide. She wasn’t expecting to be so affected by this.

She used the set of cuffs to secure Barry’s wrists and ankles to the support bar, so he was forced to stretch out his body from one end of the table to the other. Not too much tension, since she didn’t want him distracted. But tight enough to keep him in position. As she buckled the ankle cuffs over Barry’s thin argyle socks, she noticed how long Barry’s feet were. That would give her a lot of surface area to torment in the future, but now was not the time for tickling.

Frost climbed onto the table and crawled up Barry’s body with the agility of a snow leopard. She straddled his waist, but made sure to not put too much pressure on his abdomen. She undid his red bow-tie (her gift was tied up with a red bow, how thoughtful), then she slid down to straddle his thighs and started at the bottom on all his buttons. She had to unbutton his suit coat, waistcoat, and dress shirt, just to get down to his bottom layer. She spread the three layers out to the side like opening up a blossoming flower. She slid his undershirt up and pulled the front part over his head and down around the back of his neck.

Now most of his perfect chest was laid out before her eyes. The fluorescent lights made his skin look even whiter than last time, and his stretched out position highlighted his sinewy form. There was no need for Ronnie to feel jealous. This was a boy, and Ronnie was a full-blooded man. She looked at her lover over her shoulder, and Ronnie gave her a subtle nod to continue. Frost waggled her butt in his direction as a reward for his magnanimity.

Frost looked down at the Barry’s perfect pale chest and formed a small but sharp icicle in her hand. She slowly traced its sharp tip diagonally across Barry’s chest, cutting a shallow gash into his skin. Both of the West-Allens sucked in a quick breath, but neither one moved. Frost watched in fascination as Barry’s skin pulled itself together again. The shallow cut healed so quickly that no blood was left behind. She licked him clean anyway.

Frost traced her hands up the sides of her prisoner’s torso, delighting in the shiver that ran through his body at her light touch. She continued running her hands up his sides, making a show of carefully searching for any contraband or weapons on his person.

She slid forwards again and let the crotch of her leather pants rest lightly on Barry’s bare abdomen. Frost leaned down to inspect the bit gag. She unbuckled it and carefully slipped it off Barry’s head. She couldn’t help but notice that the leather was cracked and the buckle was made of cheap stainless steel. The gag had obviously been well-used over the years, and Frost was offended that Iris hadn’t bought a new one for Barry once this one had started to deteriorate. 

Frost was proud that she could provide accessories worthy of her pet. He wouldn't be cursed with subpar bondage equipment any longer.

As she slipped the gag out of Barry’s mouth, a thin string of saliva still clung to it. Barry smacked his lips and tried to lick the strand clear, but Frost leaned over and got it for him. Then she licked the rest of his dry lips and made them nice and moist again. She gave a quick glance over to the detective who watched with a clenched jaw, then Frost dipped her tongue deep into her new pet’s mouth.

Barry let her enter him, but he didn’t kiss her back until she murmured into his mouth, “Kiss me.” Then he was quite enthusiastic in his affections. Despite trying to hold back, some of her frosty powers seeped into him, and she could feel his mouth becoming cold and numb. She sat back and watched as the frostbite was chased from his body by his metahuman healing ability. She preferred Ronnie’s complete imperviousness to her cold, but at least Barry healed fast.

Frost had to pant for a bit to recover from the kiss. She rubbed herself down on Barry’s belly but grinding just wasn’t going to cut it for her tonight. Last time, Iris had shot her before she could go all the way with Barry. Tonight was going to be different.

She perused the suitcase for what she wanted, quickly finding a harness ball gag with an attached blindfold. Perfect!

“Keep your eyes closed,” she ordered, so Barry kept his eyes squeezed shut despite the removal of his blindfold. Frost liked how vulnerable the lack of sight made him, and she didn’t want him to rejoin the world of sight yet. She tossed the blindfold onto the floor, before carefully wrapping his head in the harness. The ball gag was blue to match the straps, and the blindfold had interesting patterns carved into the leather.

She slid down his body, far enough that she could unbuckle his pants and expose his equipment. She was no longer putting any effort into the pretext that this was a security search. She leaned in eagerly and drew her tongue slowly up his dick. It was already beginning to harden. She blew on the tip with her icy breath. 

Frost looked over at Iris, only to see that the detective was averting her eyes. “Detective,” she said, with a glint of ice under her words. She didn’t have to give specific orders. Iris knew not to look away again.

Frost gave Barry a few more tugs to get him all the way up, and she was delighted to see his hips start to buck off the table and his face screw up with arousal. He panted around the gag partially blocking his airway, and his wrists twisted inside their cuffs. It was time to mount the steed.

Thankfully, her cunt wasn’t as cold as the rest of her body, especially when she was turned on. Barry wouldn’t suffer any frostbite during the next part, which meant he would feel every sensation.

She parted the flaps in the crotch of tailored pants, then raised herself up and slowly sank down on Barry’s almost fully hard dick. She felt him harden to a full erection once she had engulfed him. He wasn’t as wide as Ronnie, but he was long. She took a second to adjust to the new sensations, then began to ride him like a cowgirl.

At first, Barry let her do all the work, like he was extremely conscious of the fact that his wife was only a few feet away. But soon, his instincts took over, and he thrust up enthusiastically into her delightful tightness.

Frost threw an imperious smirk at Detective West. Then she looked over her shoulder at Ronnie one last time, to reassure him that she was still his girl. Only to see that Ronnie had his hand inside his pants and was pumping away in time to her thrusts. Evidently, cuckoldry was Ronnie’s latest fetish.

Seeing Ronnie jerking off was the last straw for her, and she found herself cumming desperately. Barry came a few seconds later, thanks to her orgasmic gyrations, and she collapsed down onto his bare chest. He huffed desperately, trying to breathe despite the gag and the weight of her on his chest. She considered rolling off to the side, but he was still a bit firm inside of her, so she waited. He finally got limp enough that she could roll off to curl up by his side. Gravity had pulled most of his cum out of her and down around his dick. She’d have to clean him up before she let him get dressed again.

Detective West had the posture and facial expression of a soldier at parade rest. Frost could see that her fists were clenched as tightly as her jaw. She half-wondered if the detective had broken skin with how fiercely she was digging her nails into her palms. “You can go now, sweetie,” Frost told her with a lazy wave of her hand.

Iris walked tensely over to the now open door, without looking back at her ravished husband. She walked past Deathstorm, who leaned against the wall with a satisfied look in his eyes.

“Thank you for your cooperation, Detective West,” he said in a husky voice.

“It’s West-Allen,” corrected Iris woodenly. “And I think I’m the chief of police now.”

“You’re right, you’ve earned it.” Deathstorm gave her a mocking salute. “Thank you, Captain West-Allen.” 

Iris hid her wince as she thought of what she had just given up to gain that title. Now that the ‘transaction’ had been completed, Iris was officially the new police chief of a puppet government.

Behind her, she heard Frost ask, “Ronald, would you be a dear and fetch us a towel?”

Iris straightened her jacket, walked out of the Labs, and got into the car with Lawton. 

There was a long silence, filled only with the sounds of driving. “Where are we headed?” Lawton finally asked.

“Back to City Hall,” replied Captain Iris West-Allen. “We have work to do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CONTENT WARNINGS:  
> Bondage  
> Sexual intercourse (dubious consent)  
> Forced voyeurism
> 
> CHAPTER SUMMARY:  
> Killer Frost makes Iris watch while she ‘searches’ Barry for any contraband. It’s actually an excuse for her to tie him down, cut his clothes off and fuck him.  
> Now that the prisoner transfer is complete, Iris West-Allen is officially the new police captain of Central City.


	11. Toy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warnings at end of chapter.

“A bit higher, my love,” called Killer Frost.

Ronnie pulled on the cable again, until Frost purred the word, “Perfect.”

Ronnie secured the cable to a cleat on the wall. The cable went over a rafter in the garage, then came back to a pair of blue leather cuffs, wrapped around the slender pale wrists of Barry West-Allen. Husband of Center City’s new police chief. It was rather unfortunate that she couldn’t enjoy her new promotion, since the price of it was her husband’s freedom.

Barry stood barefoot on the cold concrete of Harrison Wells’ garage. He wore a collar, a harness gag with an attached blindfold, four cuffs, and nothing else. All the bondage equipment was a deep royal blue with silver buckles. His legs were kept apart with a spreader bar, and his arms were pulled up behind him in a strict strappado. They were almost vertical, but he didn’t seem to be under much strain. He was evidently a very flexible young man. Ronnie smiled to himself as he imagined how much fun Frost was going to have with her stretchy new toy.

“Don’t do too much damage on the first night,” Ronnie warned her. 

“He can heal from anything,” Frost retorted.

“We don’t know his exact limits,” he said.

“And there’s only one way to find someone’s limits.” Frost formed an icicle with a dull point. She dragged it slowly along Barry’s bare flank. He shivered as cold droplets fell to the concrete as his heated body melted the ice. She dragged the icicle up onto his back, then down until it dove between his spread cheeks. 

She stood with the rounded icicle poised at Barry’s back entrance, and she looked up at Ronnie as if to dare him to watch. Ronnie actually enjoyed watching her sexually torment her prisoner, but he had a feeling she wanted some privacy for this part of the night. So he ambled off back into the house. Behind him, he could hear Barry groan softly into his gag as Frost impaled him slowly.

“Wait,” said Killer Frost, as if she had suddenly remembered something important. “Where’s Harry?”

“At STAR Labs,” Ronnie explained with a yawn. 

◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆

At that moment, Dr. Harrison Wells was lying on his back on a padded exam table deep in STAR Labs. He was stripped down to his black tank top and boxer shorts, and he was secured in place with crimson straps.

The straps weren’t very high quality. Some cheap nylon, but they did their job and kept him in place. But he had experienced much higher quality bondage equipment, now that he was cuffed to his bed every night with Tina’s handmade leather cuffs. He could sleep the whole night and forget he even had them on. In contrast, these straps would cut off his circulation if he pulled on them the wrong way.

He kept his eyes on the overhead metal gantry, mainly because that was the only thing he could really look at. The rest of the room was shrouded in darkness, with the harsh examination light on the gantry as the only illumination. The light swung back and forth slightly, since Panoptica was using it to steady herself in her precarious perch.

She was only wearing her stiletto boots and her glasses, and she was crouched over Harrison’s face with her pussy pressed tightly into his mouth. He was dutifully licking and sucking on her most intimate parts. She gasped again, purposely moaning and groaning in an effort to further embarrass him. He stoically ignored her and focused on the task at hand. 

“I hope you’re using protection,” announced Death Ray from the darkness. Panoptica and Harrison turned their heads to look at him. Neither of them had heard him come in. Harrison couldn’t see a thing, but he figured Panoptica could with her x-ray vision. 

“I seriously doubt Harry has anything I don’t already have,” Panoptica countered.

“Exactly,” replied Ray as he approached the exam table. “Harry needs to be protected from you.”

Panoptica pulled herself up a few inches to show off the dental dam in Harrison’s mouth, held in place with a ring gag. “I know how to do this, darling,” she told him with a flick of her high blonde ponytail. 

Ray put one hand on the small of Panoptica’s back and put his mouth on one of her milky tits. He sucked it deep into his mouth and gave her nipple a little nibble. 

The gantry light swung as a jolt of sensation ran through Panoptica’s body, and she reached down blindly to push Harrison back into position. He went to work on her again, as Ray worked on her tits, and soon, they pushed her over the edge. She came long and hard. The light swung wildly and illuminated random parts of the dark lab.

Panoptica slowly came down from her climax and sighed deeply as she pulled Ray off her tit and kissed him languidly. He broke the kiss and stared deep into her eyes. “Did you just cum without permission?”

“Perhaps,” Panoptica replied coquettishly. Beneath her crotch, her juices were splattered across the dental dam and Harrison’s lips. 

“Go get changed,” Ray ordered her, and he gave her ass a quick slap as she dismounted. 

◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆

While she was gone, Ray had busied himself turning on the rest of the lights and getting his medical tools in order. He was wearing a plain black doctor’s uniform with a light on his forehead.

When Panoptica came back, she was dressed in a latex nurse’s uniform which left her cleavage and ass globes peeking out precariously.

“You look like an evil doctor,” Panoptica told Ray.

“Well, where would an evil doctor be without his sexy Igor.” Ray pulled her against his body and kissed her passionately as he clawed at her ass. Finally, they broke the kiss, and Ray got something out of an equipment box.

He approached the exam table with an injector tool which looked like a gun. Harrison eyed it warily and tried to hide his fear.

Ray noticed his reaction and turned to his assistant in frustration. “You didn’t explain anything to him, did you?”

“Nope,” Panoptica replied.

Ray put the injector tool down on an instrument tray and picked up a Sharpie. “Consent is sexy,” he told her with no hint of irony in his voice. He took the gag out of Harrison’s mouth and wiped the cum off his face.

“We’re going to inject some subdermal trackers just below your skin. They’re to help us keep track of your location electronically, since you went AWOL last night.”

As Ray explained this, he began to use the Sharpie to mark various places on Harrison’s body. Soon, a dozen black X’s were scattered over his skin. Ray could feel how tense Harrison was.

“Bring me the local anaesthetic, Igor,” 

“Yes, Master,” she croaked as she lurched off with an exaggerated limp.

As soon as she was slightly out of earshot, Harrison quickly explained, “What you saw us doing ... it was her idea, not mine.”

Ray waved him off. “I know my girlfriend is a slut. This is how she flirts with me.”

Harrison had no idea how to respond to that.

“I’ve been thinking,” Panoptica aid as she positioned Ray between herself and the exam table. “Harry didn’t give _me_ any local anaethetic when he headbutted me last night…”

She put one hand on the table on either side of Ray and rubbed her crotch against him. Ray grabbed her by the chin and checked for any lingering damage. Each eye had some bruising around it near the tear duct.

But Ray knew his girlfriend well. He grabbed a clean cloth from the instrument tray and wiped it over each eye. The cloth came away smeared with dark purple from where she had put on makeup to exaggerate her injuries.

“You came without permission, and now you’ve lied to my face. You’re just begging for punishment aren’t you.”

Panoptica gave him a puppy dog pout, but he pushed her away in annoyance. He grabbed the syringe from her to inject Harrison. “I need Harry to be relaxed, otherwise, there might be more damage than necessary.”

“Wait,” said Harrison. “I don’t want anything that will make my mind clouded.”

Ray thought for a second, then said, “Well, let’s kill two birds with one stone. Harrison needs something to distract him from the pain and relax him. And Panoptica desperately needs punishment.”

◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆

A few minutes later, Panoptica was once again crouched over Harrison, but this time, she was the one giving oral sex. Ray pushed on the back of her neck to make sure she deep-throated, and he teased her finger around her asshole as further humiliation. But he left her pussy needy and untouched.

God, he loved seeing her on her knees and giving head, even if it was to another man. It never felt satisfying to dominate a timid girl. But his Pancake was a full-blooded headstrong woman. She was constantly testing the limits of how far he would let her go. She forced him to up his game, and he loved every minute of it.

On the exam table, Harrison had resisted the blowjob at first. He hadn’t requested it, but he didn’t feel like he could refuse it without angering both his captors. He tried to just drift off and let his body respond naturally, but he couldn’t ignore his bonds or get his mind off who was between his legs. So he closed his eyes and day-dreamed of Tina. He imagined her soft smirking lips, tight around him as he lay in leather bondage in the back of her shop. Soon, he was cumming, and he was pulled back to the present by the sound of Panoptica gagging as Ray kept her in place and forced her to swallow. 

◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆

The procedure itself didn’t last very long, and soon, Ray was injecting the last rice-sized tracker into Harrison’s thigh. “Fifteen trackers seems a bit excessive,” he commented.

“It’s illogical to underestimate Dr. Wells,” Panoptica replied as she made a note of the injection location on her tablet. Some of Harrison’s cum was dried on her cheek. Ray had ordered her to not wipe it off immediately, as punishment for not swallowing all of it. 

Ray put a small bandage over the last injection. “Now, we need you to lie still for about thirty minutes, to make sure you don’t shift and push one of the trackers out of place.”

“What are we going to do while we wait?” Panoptica asked suggestively.

She had barely put the tablet down before Ray was on her like a horny tiger, pulling her uniform off and pushing her to the back of the lab. He pushed her down on a leather couch and pulled himself free from his pants. She usually preferred a bit of bondage, but he was in a hurry to get inside her.

She gasped as she felt his big cock slide into her desperate pussy, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, holding on for dear life as he slammed into her again and again. Her cries echoed around the lab as her climax came quickly and loudly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CONTENT WARNINGS:  
> Bondage  
> Anal penetration  
> Non-consensual oral sex  
> Brief description of medical procedure (injection of rice-sized trackers)  
> Consensual sex
> 
> Visit me on [Tumblr](https://theboundbandit.tumblr.com/).


	12. Gotta keep ‘em separated

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from “Come Out and Play” by The Offspring. 
> 
> Content warnings at the end of the chapter.

Death Ray and Panoptica left Harrison strapped down to the exam table while they fucked, but when the afterglow finally wore off, they came over to set him free.

Harrison sat up with a groan and got dressed again. It felt good to be clothed again, and not in a thin pair of boxers in the presence of these psychos.

He thought his ordeal was over, but then Panoptica pressed his right arm flat on one of the worktables and held him in place. Death Ray moved a bright desk light directly over Harrison’s hand and put a tool box on the table next to it.

Harrison steeled himself for the next round of torture. He felt something cold and metallic encircle his wrist, and his whole body jerked with fear. But there wasn’t any pain. He looked over to see Ray tightening one of STAR Lab’s metahuman detector watches around his wrist. Obviously, it had been modified because it wasn’t buzzing and beeping in the presence of a metahuman.

“Hold still,” Ray told him, as he used a heating tool to solder over the clasp. Harrison could feel the heat of the soldering iron close to his bare skin, but it wasn’t unbearable. He sat stock still, not wanting to be burned.

Suddenly, Panoptica licked his neck, and he flinched in surprise. His wrist brushed against the white hot soldering iron, and he screeched in pain. Ray pulled away immediately, but even the brief contact was excruciating.

“Damn, it Pan!” Ray chided, but he immediately went back to work.

Harrison glared at Panoptica, but she just smirked at him.

“Okay, all done,” Ray announced, as he put his tools away.

“Good boy, Harry,” said Panoptica cheerily, and she ruffled Harrison’s unruly hair.

He spat in her face.

Panoptica’s cheerfulness was gone in a heartbeat, and she slammed the heel of her hand up against the bridge of Harrison’s nose. His vision got starry for a few seconds and tears sprung to his eyes from the sudden hit. 

Panoptica grabbed a roll of duct tape from the worktable and began to wrap it across Harrison’s lower face. She wound it multiple times around his head, trapping his mouth behind layers of smooth silver tape. “That’ll teach you not to spit,” she spat into his face. A drop of blood trickled from his nose and over his new gag.

She pulled his arms behind his back and wrapped tape tightly around his wrists, then she dragged him out of the room and deeper into the Labs. He quickly realized she was taking him to the Pipeline. He knew Zoom’s army was using it as a prison. 

She tossed him into the cell, and he had trouble catching himself without use of his hands. He fell to his knees and another drop of blood trickled down over his gag.

◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆

Ronnie couldn’t sleep. Something didn’t feel right. He knew Ray was a reliable guy, but he also knew Panoptica was the real power in that relationship, constantly goading Ray into dominating her sexually.

Ronnie had told them he would stop by to pick up Harry the next morning, but there wasn’t any reason he couldn’t pick him up earlier. So he grabbed his Fire Bike and rode to STAR Labs in the middle of the night. With the ongoing curfew, he had the road to himself. The flames from his exhaust pipe lit up the asphalt behind him and threw creepy shadows deep into the darkness. 

He met Ray in the lobby, and they headed down to the Pipeline together. “By the way,” Ray told him, “Zoom told us to implement some additional security measures. Since you evidently can’t keep track of your boy.”

“Like you could do any better,” Ronnie snapped back. “What kind of security measures?”

“Just some electronic tracking stuff. I’ll give you the specs once I finish the interface.”

They walked into the Pipeline Access tunnel, then Ronnie broke into a run. Harrison was banging his head desperately against the glass. His chest was heaving ineffectively, trying to pull air in through his blood-clogged nose.

Ronnie punched the button to open the cell door, and as it hissed open, Harrison fell forward over the threshold. Ronnie peeled and scrunched the duct tape down off Harrison’s mouth. Finally, Harrison got his upper lip above the gag and breathed a desperate gasp of air deep into his lungs.

Ronnie got his pocket knife out and carefully cut the duct tape around Harrison’s head and hands. Harrison worked at peeling the rest of it free, while Ronnie stood up and shoved Ray in the chest.

“Oh sure, you make fun of me for letting Harry escape, but when you have custody, you almost kill him!”

“We didn’t mean to choke him, it was an accident!” Death Ray whined. “Don’t tell Zoom. Please.”

“You tattled on us about last night. Why would I keep your secret?” Ronnie taunted.

Death Ray sputtered. Harrison climbed to his feet and informed him matter-of-factly, “Your girlfriend is a cunt.”

Death Ray charged at him, but Deathstorm grabbed him by the arm and formed a fireball in his other hand. He moved it slowly towards Death Ray’s face. He wanted him to feel the heat coming before he was burned. 

Suddenly, a chunk of wall burst into molten light behind him and only a hissing hole was left behind. They all looked up to see Panoptica standing at the entrance of the Access Tunnel, another burst of deadly light kindling in her eyes.

“Get your fucking hands off my fucking boyfriend!” she barked.

Deathstorm threw Death Ray to the ground, but he kept the fireball burning in his palm. “I’m taking Harrison, and we’re leaving. If either of you try to stop us, I’ll burn him first.” Deathstorm pointed at Death Ray cowering on the floor.

A chink appeared in Panoptica’s armor of anger. Ray was her weakness, and Deathstorm knew it.

“Fine, then leave,” she told them, trying to hide the fear in her voice. The light in her eyes died away, and she put her glasses back on. 

Deathstorm grabbed Harrison with his non-burning hand, but Harrison winced at the grip. Ronnie extinguished his fireball and angrily pushed up Harrison’s sleeve to find multiple band-aids. “What the hell did you do to him?” he demanded.

“I told you, we put some electronic trackers in him,” Ray explained pitifully.

“Anything else I need to know about?” Ronnie asked incredulously.

“We welded a tracking bracelet onto his wrist,” Panoptica replied, as she slunk over to help Ray to his feet.

Ronnie grabbed Harrison’s other arm to look at the bracelet. He noticed the fresh burn mark on his skin. “Welded…?” he mused. “Go wait for me at the elevators,” he ordered Harrison.

Once Harrison had left, Deathstorm turned to Ray and Panoptica. They were holding hands tightly. He stepped closer until he was right in front of them, and he held out his hand with the palm up. He formed a tiny ball of fire which floated in the air. He had learned a long time ago that subtle precision was more terrifying than wild fury. 

Deathstorm looked deep into Ray’s watchful eyes. “If you ever hurt Harrison again, I’ll burn you alive.”

Then Deathstorm looked at Panoptica. The fireball was slowly growing, and its dangerous light was reflecting in her glasses. “And if _you_ ever hurt Harrison again, I’ll burn Ray alive, and make you watch.”

Deathstorm let the fireball suddenly swell and flare, before extinguishing it just as quickly. Ray and Panoptica both took an involuntarily step back, but Ronnie was already walking away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CONTENT WARNINGS:  
> Bondage  
> Partial suffocation  
> Threat of burning


	13. Homespun

Once again, Harrison found himself on the back of a motorcycle with no idea where he was being taken, and once again, he was determined not to ask for that information.

Ronnie gunned the engine through the next intersection, ignoring the red light. No cop would stop him, since he was a metahuman and metahumans ran the city.

Ronnie drove down a welcoming neighborhood street lined with houses contained within picket fences. Cars lined up and down the street, and people in black clothing were converging on a white house. The mourners formed a line in the driveway which snaked up to front door.

“You could have told me we were going to a funeral reception,” Harrison muttered in frustration.

“It’s not like you’d have to change into something black,” Ronnie retorted. He strode past the line of waiting people, and Harrison followed along behind.

Everyone shifted to make room for them, like a parting sea. Harrison could tell that Ronnie enjoyed the deference. They squeezed into the front foyer, which was already too full of people. On the wall was a silver framed photograph of a dignified man in a police captain’s uniform.

This was Clyde Mardon’s house.

The former chief of police. Killed by Zoom.

Ronnie started to wade through the crowd of mourners, when suddenly he came face-to-face with Mark Mardon. Clyde’s brother. 

“What the hell are you doing here?” Mark demanded with dangerous menace.

“We’re here to pay our respects. Just like everyone else,” replied Deathstorm jauntily.

“We don’t want you here.” A storm was brewing deep in Mark’s eyes.

“Well, let Dr. Wells say a few words, then we’ll leave.” Ronnie stood aside to reveal Harrison, who was standing right behind him.

At the mention of Dr. Wells, Mark’s anger deflated, and the lightning in his eyes disappeared. “Dr. Wells…” he said.

Harrison didn’t know what to say. Then he felt Ronnie press something small and metal into his palm. He looked down to see the aluminum id bracelet he had retrieved from the STAR Labs vault. 

“This belonged to my brother,” Harrison explained. “It was his identification bracelet in the War of the Americas, and after he died, I inherited it. It’s a tradition for the relatives of fallen soldiers to keep their id bracelets.”

Harrison held the bracelet out, and Mark received it numbly.

“Your brother also died in a war. He died a hero, and he should be remembered as a hero.”

There was an awkward silence. Harrison didn’t know what to do. Then Mark embraced him and pressed his face into the scientist’s shoulder. Harrison awkwardly patted the weeping man’s back. Mark broke the hug off suddenly, standing back and looking a bit embarrassed, wiping away his tears.

“Sorry, it’s been a rough few days,” Mark explained. “Of course, nothing like what you’ve been going through. It’s one thing to lose a brother. Having a child in danger, that must be so much worse.”

Usually, Harrison was furious at anyone who even mentioned his daughter. But Mark Mardon’s words were filled with such love and gentleness that he felt his sore heart be comforted by the words. 

Mark put his hand on Harrison’s shoulder in solidarity and ushered him farther into the house.

◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆

The front living room was filled with threadbare but comfy armchairs. Soft crocheted blankets were draped over the backs of chairs, and Harrison and Mark sat side by side on an overstuffed couch. They both sipped warm tea from dainty china cups

Ronnie sat awkwardly on a paisley loveseat, squished off to the side beside various elderly aunts. Someone had given him a bottle of beer, but he wasn’t talking to anyone. Funerals were neutral ground, according to the new culture which had developed in Zoom City, so even metahuman criminals were accorded the civilities of hospitality. 

There was a pair of identical twin girls, about six-years-old, with straight black hair in page boy cuts. They peeked around the door from the hallway. One looked at Ronnie and the other looked at Harrison. Then they fled back into the hallway, giggling and blushing.

Mark told long but interesting stories about growing up with his brother and all the misadventures they’d had. He kept a comforting hand on Harrison’s shoulder. Harrison found himself enjoying the gathering. He was genuinely relaxing for the first time in weeks.

Various friends and family made their way through the house, greeting the immediate family and offering their condolences. But Mark kept Harrison by his side. This warm family homelife was alien to him, but it was also comforting and nice.

The house was full of people and full of the smells of coffee and tea being brewed, Full of people who were full of grief and yet even more full of love. And they were brought even closer by their shared pain and loss.

Iris West-Allen, the new police chief, stopped by to pay her respects. She kept fiddling with her wedding ring. From the doorway, the reporter Tony Woodward took notes with his left hand. His fingerless right hand was hidden within a stiff black glove.

Quentin Lance tottered in, the alcohol coming off him in waves. He hadn’t taken the death of his daughter very well.

Harrison was reminded that everyone had a daughter or a brother or a loved one they had lost or were scared of losing. He wasn’t alone in this.

Finally, the various visitors slowed to a trickle. “There’s something I want to give you,” Mark said.

Harrison looked up at him in surprise. He had been lost in thought. Mark beckoned him out of the room.

Harrison instinctively looked around for Ronnie to get permission. But as soon as the older female relatives had realized Ronnie was hungry, he had been pulled into the kitchen and fed every homemade comfort food known to man.

Usually, his captors didn’t let him out of their sight, but with the new tracker bracelet, Harrison couldn’t wander too far. That was the one nice thing about the electronic tracker. It gave him a bit of privacy.

Harrison followed Mark through a side door and into a two-car garage with no cars in it. Instead, it was jam-packed with cardboard boxes piled up to the ceiling. The air was filled with the smell of dust and damp paper.

“I don’t want to escape. Not without my daughter,” Harrison said quickly.

“This isn’t an escape. Follow me.” Mark threaded his way through the winding corridors between the stacks of boxes. He opened a few boxes, before finding the one he wanted. Then he had to dig to the bottom of it, finally holding up the item.

It was a small keychain with a short metal cylinder on it. Harrison tried to be polite, but it was pretty ordinary looking. “Umm, thanks.”

“Clyde gave that to me, when I went off to college. For safety.” Mark popped a hidden lid off the cylinder. “It’s a concealable taser. Single use, even on a full-change, but it packs a wallop.”

Mark put the top back on, and once again, it looked like an ordinary keychain. Killer Frost and Deathstorm never let him have tech, but this looked like a cheap toy.

Harrison smiled at Mark. “Thank you,” he said with genuine warmth.

Then there was a dull thump, and Mark fell forwards. Harrison tried to catch him, but that just made them both fall to the ground.

Behind Mark, Quentin Lance stood holding a tire iron. His face was full of uncontainable rage. “You killed my daughter, you bastard!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is always appreciated.


	14. Fearful Symmetry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from “The Tyger” by William Blake.
> 
> Content warning at end of chapter.

Harrison squirmed desperately under the unconscious body of Mark Mardon. The taser keychain was somewhere under Mark’s body, but Harrison didn’t have time to find it. He crawled backwards, trying to scuttle away from Quentin Lance without turning his back.

But Quentin dropped down on his knees, pinning Harrison underneath him. He leaned in close and put both his hands on the scientist’s shoulders.

“You killed my daughter,” Quentin repeated. The alcohol on his breath washed over Harrison’s face like a cloud.

“I’m sorry,” Harrison said. And he was sorry. He had seen today how much destruction he had helped cause. All the people hurt by his actions, however indirectly.

Harrison realized he didn’t deserve to live. Not when so many other people, good people, had died. Jesse would be better off with no father than with a father like him.

Quentin pushed himself awkwardly to his feet and stood over Harrison. He raised the tire iron over his head, prepared to bring it down on the scientist’s head. HIs hands were shaking from all the alcohol in his system, but it was easy to hit an unmoving target, and it was easy to kill someone who wasn’t fighting back.

Harrison closed his eyes, ready for the end. But he knew that without him, Jesse would die. It was too late for him, but he could at least save her. He was going to save Jesse if it was the last thing he did, this whole violent world be damned.

Quentin brought the tire iron down with all his might, but it smashed pointlessly into the garage floor. Harrison had rolled to the side at the last second. The cement cracked like a spider web right next to his head.

The failed blow had thrown Quentin off balance, so Harrison pushed himself to his feet and shoved Quentin back. Harrison darted deeper into the cluttered garage, ducking behind a stack of cardboard boxes.

“You sacrificed my daughter so yours could live,” Quentin called out drunkenly.

Harrison pushed a tower of boxes down on top of his pursuer. It slowed Quentin down but didn’t stop him.

“You protected your daughter, but I couldn’t protect mine.” Quentin’s voice broke at these words. He blamed himself. But more than that, he blamed Harrison Wells.

Harrison reached the other end of the garage and tried to push up the garage door. But it was automatic and was controlled by a button back at the entrance. Harrison was trapped.

He turned around to see Quentin swaying on his feet, blocking his way back. The tire iron was down by his side, so Harrison grabbed the chance to try to rush past him. But Quentin tripped him as he went past, and he went sprawling.

He felt the wind get knocked out of him by the fall. He laid on his back, trying to will his body to breathe again.

But then Quentin was standing over him and pressed his heavy boot on top of Harrison’s chest, pinning him in place. He raised the tire iron above his head again, and darkness burned in his eyes.

The darkness grew into a shadow that consumed his furious face, as a fiery light kindled around him. 

Deathstorm rose up behind him, and he grabbed the tire iron with a single fist of fire. The metal tool bent, then fell to the ground in two twisted pieces.

It was Quentin’s turn to run for his life, and he banged against the same garage door Harrison had been unable to open. Quentin spun around and fell to his knees, begging for his life.

But Deathstorm was full of fire and he needed something to burn.

Deathstorm stood before him like a devil from Hell Itself. His whole body was aflame, and all around him, the skin of the cardboard boxes began to blister and curl up in black strips. Twin fireballs formed in his palms and began to spin and grow.

“Dr. Wells, don’t let him kill me!” Quentin pleaded

But Harrison just watched. 

“At least let me see Laurel before I die. One of my daughters is dead, but the other is alive, let me see her. Black Siren, Laurel Lance, let me see her, please.” Quentin was practically weeping with fear and desperation.

“No,” said Deathstorm simply. And he shoved the two fireballs deep into Quentin’s chest.

The fire burned him from the inside out and consumed his whole body like a ravenous cancer. The flames shone out through his eyes and mouth like a demented jack-o’-lantern. His screams filled the claustrophobic garage, and his burning flesh lit up the darkness.

Then the fire was over, and all that was left was a pile of dust and bone. 

“Come on, Harry,” Ronnie said. “Let’s go home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CONTENT WARNING:  
> Murder by burning alive


	15. The Dinner Party

Dr. Harrison Wells sat at the breakfast nook in his expensive glass house. Not that it was his anymore. Not since Zoom’s minions took it over.

In the kitchen, Ronnie was helping Barry cook dinner. The roast was almost ready. Barry wore a bright red apron and yellow oven mitts. Jesse used to wear them when she did science experiments in the kitchen. Harrison stood up, needing to pace around.

“Where are _you_ going?” Ronnie demanded.

Harrison sighed. “You don’t have to keep an eye on me 24/7. It’s not like I can get far.” He held up his electronic tracker which was locked on his wrist.

“You lost the right to free movement when you ran away from home last week,” Ronnie countered.

“I was going to come back,” Harrison argued. “I wouldn’t leave Jesse behind.” They let him have a phone call with his daughter after they launched the Human Shield, but that was weeks ago.

“Now, why don’t you go set the table,” Ronnie suggested. “Let’s use our nice silverware tonight.”

“ _Our_ silverware?” Harrison asked incredulously.

Ronnie just looked at him.

Harrison was getting angry. “No, _my_ silverware. In _my_ house. In _Zoom’s_ city. Nothing you have is actually yours. Even your girlfriend is fucking some other guy.” 

In the kitchen, Barry accidentally dropped a spatula.

Ronnie’s face was frozen, like he wanted to punish Harrison for insulting his girlfriend. But he forced himself to remain calm. “You’re on pretty thin ice, Harry. You don’t want me to tell Zoom you’ve been uncooperative. Not while he still has Jesse.”

Harrison didn’t even know if Jesse was alive. He shoved Ronnie angrily in the chest.

Ronnie grabbed Harrison’s wrists and held them in one hand above his head, while he pushed him back against a wall. Ronnie held him there firmly, with a hand flat on his chest while he struggled.

Barry was staring at them silently with wide eyes. Like a child who hated watching his parents fight.

“Harrison, what are you doing?” Ronnie asked in a frustrated voice. He could feel Harrison’s heart pounding in his chest.

Harrison closed his eyes and breathed heavily through his nose, trying to calm down. Adrenaline was counterproductive right now. Like a fire without a chimney.

Ronnie saw him calming down and let him go. He went to help Barry again.

But Harrison had felt good when he fought back. Nothing he did made anything better, so what was the point in using the same old strategy. Cooperating wasn’t working. Maybe it was time to try being uncooperative.

There was a carving knife out on the cutting board. Ronnie had his back to him. It was a Hail Mary, but Harrison never expected to come out of this alive anyway. He might as well try one last thing to save Jesse.

But then the doorbell rang. Ronnie looked over at Harrison, who stopped moving towards the knife.

“Why don’t you go answer the door, Harry?” suggested Ronnie with a weird expression. Like there was a joke that only he got.

Harrison honestly didn’t care anymore. He walked into the foyer and opened the front door. Jesse was on the porch.

◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆

They sat around the dinner table in silence. Harrison Wells ate mechanically, Ronnie Raymond ate multiple servings, and Killer Frost fed Barry Allen by hand. Like usual, Barry was perched beside her, kneeling on a crimson cushion next to her chair.

They were all surprised at Jesse’s appetite. Harrison thought she wouldn’t feel like eating, but instead, she tore into the meal like a starving child.

Ronnie was bothered by that. Evidently, Zoom hadn’t been feeding her very well. Sure, Harry had gotten hurt a few times, but overall, they kept him in good health and made sure he was well-fed.

Harrison had reached a similar conclusion. Jesse had arrived looking clean and well cared for, but Harrison could smell the shampoo in her hair, and her STAR Labs sweatshirt still had creases in it from the packaging. He realized they had cleaned her up right before she arrived, and he didn’t want to think about what she had looked like beforehand.

One of her wrists had bad calluses on it, like she had been shackled by one wrist the whole time. Her other wrist had an electronic tracker welded on, just like his own.

“It’s just until midnight. Then Zoom takes her back,” Ronnie explained.

Both the Wells’ nodded calmly. They had figured as much, since Zoom was still using Jesse to control Harrison.

Everyone kept eating without speaking. Outside, a long steady rain was pounding the windows, but inside, the silence was getting uncomfortable. No one knew what to say.

Finally, Frost told Barry to speak.

“Um, Jesse,” he asked from his cushion on the floor. “Dr. Wells said you were studying Advanced Particle Fields at college.”

Jesse was a bit surprised by the question, and she tried to ignore the fact that it was asked by a young man in a collar sitting on the floor. “Yeah, they have a good physics program. It’s a really exciting field.”

“I read your high school honors thesis on Ion Cloud Diffusion. Are you planning on writing a college level thesis and expanding on that topic?” Barry was talking very fast. “Not that your high school thesis wasn’t in-depth enough, it was actually very advanced in comparison to your age group or even to normal college students, but I wonder if you’re going to do additional research on the behavior of widespread magnetic fields, like the shield your dad built.”

Jesse asked, “What shield?”

Barry grinned, happy to brag about his science hero. “Dr. Wells, he built a Shield Generator on the roof of STAR Labs. It projects out a discerning field that contains the whole city. It uses the same sensors from the metahuman detection watches to deactivate so metahumans can pass through it unharmed.”

Harrison shifted in his chair. “How about you tell Barry about your other majors?” he suggested.

Jesse noted his discomfort and read between the lines of what Barry had said. “So, if the metahumans can pass through unharmed, what happens to regular humans?”

There was complete silence at the dinner table. The rain plinked on the plate glass windows. 

“Dad, tell me,” Jesse ordered.

This was the last thing Harrison wanted to talk about during his precious hours with his only daughter.

But then Frost jumped in, “Go ahead, Dr. Wells. Tell her.”

Harrison knew better than to disobey her when she spoke with ice in her voice. He didn’t look at Jesse while he explained, “If a human tries to pass through the shield, they die.”

“They burn up like toast,” Frost explained. She took a swig of blue vodka.

“Has anyone…?” Jesse started to ask.

“Well, we had to test it,” Frost said flippantly. “To know if it worked.”

Jesse stared at all of them in horror. “Daddy? How could you? Why did you help them?”

“Zoom had you. So I did whatever he said.” Harrison gripped the edge of the table. “I’m your father. It’s my job to keep you safe.”

There was a long silence at the table. No one knew what to say. Frost poured another glass of vodka for herself.

“How many people are dead because of me?” Jesse finally asked.

Before Harrison had a chance to answer, the doorbell rang. Everyone was relieved to have a distraction.

Barry was sent to answer the door, and he came back with Panoptica and Death Ray. The two of them were dragging a hooded and cuffed prisoner in between them.

They dumped their prisoner on the tiled living room floor. The Wells mansion didn’t really have walls between the main rooms. More like strategic pillars to separate out the space, so they all had a good view of everything from their seats.

“Guess who tried to sneak into STAR Labs tonight?” asked Panoptica rhetorically.

With a flourish worthy of a stage magician, Death Ray whipped off the prisoner’s hood, revealing a battered and bruised Tony Woodward.


	16. Tony

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warning at end of chapter.

The rain was coming down harder, and it pelted against the skylights above them.

“You should have stuck to reporting,” Killer Frost informed Tony Woodward as she approached his kneeling form.

“We found him trying to break into one of the archive rooms. We think he was after the schematics for the Shield Generator,” announced Panoptica. She was obviously proud of their catch.

“A sin has been committed, and a price must be paid. But you’ve already lost fingers as a result of misbehavior, and you didn’t learn did you?” Killer Frost circled behind Tony, so she could see the stubs of his severed fingers.

Panoptica and Ray stood back to watch the proceedings with amusement. Ronnie wasn’t looking forward to watching someone get hurt, but he knew telling Killer Frost ‘No’ just made her want it even more.

“Your punishment has to be worse this time,” Killer Frost traced a cold finger across Tony’s quivering throat.

“Please don’t kill me,” Tony begged.

“Kill you? I just want to give you a kiss.” She leaned in, prepared to freeze him to death with her lips.

“Stop!”

Killer Frost’s head snapped up in anger. No one was allowed to tell her to stop.

“Stop,” said Jesse Wells again. 

Harrison tried to put himself between Frost and Jesse, but both of them pushed him aside.

“You said a price must be paid. Let me pay it, and let him live,” argued Jesse. “Pick a part of me, and cut it off.”

Killer Frost looked Jesse up and down, savoring getting to pick which part of her to slice away. “Deal,” she said.

“Frost, no,” Harrison argued. “Zoom will be mad if you hurt her. She’s a valuable hostage.”

“As long as she’s still alive, he won’t be mad,” Frost argued, not taking her eyes of Jesse’s body.

“Cut something off me,” Harrison offered.

“The people of Central City care far more about her than they do about you. I want to make a statement,” Frost said, staring deep into Jesse’s eyes.

“Tony committed the crime, he should pay the price.” Harrison was getting more and more desperate.

Finally, Killer Frost took her eyes of Jesse and looked over at Harrison. “Tell you what, my dear,” she informed him. “I’ll leave her alone, if you kill Tony.”

“Okay,” Harrison said quickly. “Give me a gun.”

Frost laughed icily. “Barry, my love. Be a dear and fetch a knife from the kitchen.”

Barry quickly returned with the serrated knife Harrison had been eying earlier. It was long, but Harrison wasn’t sure how clean of a death he could give Tony. 

“Daddy, don’t,” pleaded Jesse. “This is _my_ decision. Let me do this.”

“Shut up, or I’ll kill Tony _and_ cut off part of you,” Frost threatened, so Jesse shut her mouth.

But she stared at her father, silently shaking her head, urging him to do the right thing. Tony also stared at Harrison with tears welling up on his eyes. He was too scared to speak anymore. Harrison looked down at the knife in his hand.

Harrison thought about watching Sara Lance be burned alive by the Human Shield. He thought about all the police officers killed by Zoom.

He thought about Mark Mardon and Laurel Lance and everyone else in Central City who had lost loved ones. 

But most of all, he thought about the way Jesse looked at him when she found out that he had helped kill people. Jesse deserved a better father.

“No.” He dropped the knife, and it clattered loudly on the hard floor in the silent room.

Frost smiled in cruel delight and turned back to Jesse. She brushed a lock of the young woman’s hair out of her face. “Pretty girl,” she crooned.

Ronnie grabbed Harrison’s arm, making sure he didn’t try to interfere.

Frost pushed Jesse down in a dining room chair and came around to stand behind her. “You have your father’s eyes. I think I’ll take one.”

Jesse stared straight ahead, but said nothing.

Killer Frost formed an ice knife and began to slowly cut into the side of Jesse’s face, right next to her eye.

Drops of blood started to flow down Jesse's cheek like dark red tears.

Jesse bravely tried to hold still, but the pain was too much. Frost had to hold her head in place, and Jesse gripped the armrests to keep from pushing her away. She grit her teeth, but an involuntary keening was forced out of her. Soon, real tears were mixing with the drops of blood.

“Last chance, Dr. Wells,” Frost reminded him.

Harrison looked on in horror, but Jesse stared back at him bravely. “Don’t,” she mouthed silently.

Killer Frost adjusted her grip, preparing to make her next incision.

“Wait!” Harrison pleaded. “Wait. I’ll kill him for you. I’ll do it, please.”

“Fine,” Frost said matter-of-factly. She dropped the ice knife, and it shattered on the ground. Ronnie let go of Harrison.

Jesse buried her face in her hands, pressing a napkin against her bleeding socket.

Harrison picked up the kitchen knife he had dropped. “I’m sorry,” he said to no one in particular.

“Dr. Wells, you’re better than this,” Tony said quietly.

“No, I’m not,” he replied. He stood in front of Tony with the knife down by his side. “Last words. Make ‘em count.”

Surprisingly, Tony looked over at Barry. “I’m sorry I bullied you at school, Allen.”

“He bullied you?” Frost said. “Okay, now he has to die.”

Tony ignored her and continued, “I wanted Iris, but she loved you, and I hated that. I realized I had to become a better person to deserve her, so I became a reporter. And she _still_ picked you.”

Barry wasn’t allowed to talk unless Frost gave him permission. But tears were flowing down his cheeks.

“But I don’t regret changing. I don’t regret anything. I became a better man because of her,” Tony told him. “She loves you Barry. She’s always loved you.”

Tony nodded for Harrison to proceed, and he drew the blade across Tony’s throat.

The blade was dull, and it didn’t go deep enough. Harrison grabbed Tony’s shoulder to brace himself and cut the blade in deeper this time, but it still wasn’t enough. Tony was making a weird quiet screeching sound.

Harrison wracked his brain, trying to remember the basics of human anatomy. He wanted to do this quickly and efficiently, but he hadn’t wielded a scalpel since dissecting a frog in high school.

He punctured the jugular, but the hole wasn’t very wide. Tony was gurgling, since his esophagus was gaping open now. The bleeding young man stared up at his murderer with the scared eyes of a child. Harrison focused on his throat and stabbed the knife directly into the jugular vein. Blood spurted out in a torrent and splattered all over Harrison’s shirt. He jumped back involuntarily. 

Tony fell on his side, and a growing puddle formed about his body. His body jerked a few times, then he lay still. Everyone stepped back so the blood wouldn’t get on their shoes.

Killer Frost turned to Death Ray. “You can take the body back to the Labs. I know you’re always begging for fresh cadavers to test your weapons on.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CONTENT WARNING:  
> Knife violence  
> Violent murder


	17. The Promise

In the kitchen, Ronnie stood alone at the sink, scrubbing the pan Barry had used for the roast. He kept an eye on Harrison and Jesse.

In the breakfast nook, Harrison was using a first aid kit to doctor up the cut on Jesse’s face. Jesse wasn’t making eye contact with her father.

In the master bedroom, Frost was using Barry to let all her energy out. Frost was always horny after a good murder, but Ronnie had no interest in sex right now. This murder wasn’t clean, and everyone was pretty shaken up. Barry wasn’t in the mood either, but he didn’t get a choice in the matter.

In the living room, there was still a pool of blood from Tony. Panoptica and Death Ray had lugged the corpse out to their car and taken it back to STAR Labs. Someone would have to clean up the blood later.

Ronnie kept scrubbing at the pan, even though it was clean. It felt good to do something, even if it accomplished nothing. He couldn’t get the image of Tony out of his head. He kept remembering the look on Harrison’s face as he slit Tony’s throat, and how Harrison had looked over at Jesse with eyes full of regret.

This wasn't how he wanted things to be. The metahumans were supposed to take their rightful place as rulers and inherit the Earth. The humans were supposed to be punished for their arrogance and metahuman rights abuses. No one was supposed to be brutally executed for minor offenses. No one was supposed to be forced to slaughter another human.

Harrison was his friend. Well, kind of. Ronnie didn’t have many friends, so Harrison was currently the closest thing he had right now to a friend. 

Ronnie looked into the breakfast nook. Harrison was gone.

Ronnie dropped the pan in the sink with a clang and turned to go into the breakfast nook. And ran straight into Harrison.

“Sorry,” they both said at the same time.

“Uhh,” said Harrison. “I have a request … since Jesse’s only here for tonight.” 

“What?” asked Ronnie, afraid the request would be too big to grant.

“When Jesse was little, we used to go on walks in the woods around the house. Don’t worry, we won’t try to run. We’re both wearing trackers, so we couldn’t leave anyway.” Harrison held up his tracker watch.

Ronnie stared into Harry’s eyes, looking for any sign of deceit. Harrison looked at him openly and honestly.

“Please,” Harrison said almost pitifully. “We need to do something _normal_.”

Ronnie thought about the cold, damp prison Jesse had been kept in for weeks. He thought about the bloody murder she had been forced to watch her father commit. “Okay,” he said.

“Thank you,” said Harrison with genuine gratitude. 

“But I’m coming with you guys.”

Harrison hesitated for a fraction of a second, then nodded in agreement. Ronnie couldn’t read his expression.

◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆

The rain had abated, but it was a cold night. Harrison and Jesse walked arm-in-arm, huddled in their coats. Ronnie was never cold, so he just wore his normal clothes. He hung back a few paces to give them the illusion of privacy.

Jesse wasn’t speaking to her father. She was too horrified by all she had learned tonight.

“Do you remember all the midnight science walks we used to have out here?” her father asked her.

She didn’t answer.

“You were afraid of the dark, so I made a necklace for you that glowed in the dark. And I bought you a bunch of books on nocturnal animals and astronomy. But then you wanted to observe the nighttime animal behavior, and to see the distant star clusters. Some stars are so faint that we could only see them in the darkest part of the night.” Harrison was talking like everything was normal, even though it wasn’t.

They walked along on the carpet of thick pine needles. The recent rain made the air smell like damp earth.

“There were so many things I wanted to teach you. But pretty soon, you were teaching me,” Harrison said. “You taught me that the most interesting parts of this world can be found in the darkness.”

Jesse still wasn’t talking.

“Even the night you were born was dark. It had been raining all day, just like today. Then you were born, and I held you in my arms, and I realized you were the most precious thing in the world to me.” Harrison seemed to be speaking almost to himself. “That night, I promised I would do _anything_ to keep you safe.”

A gust of wind rattled the trees above them, making a sprinkle of water rain down on them.

Harrison gripped Jesse’s arm tightly. “I will keep you safe, Jesse. I promise.”

Suddenly, he turned around and stopped. Ronnie stopped, too, wondering what was going on. Harrison beckoned him closer.

“I have another request,” Harrison said, as he dug something out of his pocket.

Ronnie heard the jangle of a keychain before his chest exploded in agony. Electricity sparked through his body, and he fell back onto the cushion of cold damp pine needles that covered the whole trail.

Harrison grabbed Jesse’s hand and yanked her along behind him as they sprinted off the trail. There was a break in the trees, and they ran into a cement covered culvert. It was an opening to a storm drain system.

They ran into the tunnel, which had a low level of water in the bottom of it. It was awkward to run along inside it, since the floor was curved. Her father obviously had a plan, so Jesse just went along with it.

There were numerous smaller tunnels that fed into or drained out of the main tunnel. But Harrison had done his research, and he checked the numerical markings above each one until he found the tunnel he wanted.

He turned around and took his daughter’s hands in his. “Jesse, I love you more than life itself.”

Then he dislocated her thumb. She cried out in pain, but the draining water around them drowned out most of the noise. He worked the tracker watch off her wrist and threw it down a different drain, and the waters swept it away.

“Tell me the plan,” she said. “How are we going to escape?”

“We’re not,” he told her. “ _You_ are.”

He fished something out of his pocket and held it up. It was her necklace with the glowing kyber crystal in the middle.

“I can’t leave,” she argued. 

“Yes, you can.” Harrison draped the necklace around her neck and held up the pendent. “I’ve reversed the polarity of the kyber crystal, so it gives off the signal of a metahuman. The Human Shield will read you as metahuman, and you can pass through it.”

“No, I mean...You killed someone because of me, again.” Tears were welling up in Jesse’s eyes, but she didn’t look away. 

“Killer Frost would have cut your eye out! I couldn’t let that happen.” Harrison ran his hand through his hair. 

“So you killed someone so I wouldn’t get injured. I don’t like that math. What made my face worth more than his _life_?” Jesse’s fists clenched down by her sides. 

Harrison didn’t have time for this. Deathstorm could catch up any moment now. Harrison pointed down at the pipe he had picked out. “This drains out beyond the reach of the Human Shield. Your necklace will protect you.”

He pushed her down into the small tunnel, while fell away from them at a steep angle. She sat on the edge of it like she was about to go down a water slide. 

He tried to push her down into the tunnel, but she braced herself on the lip. She grabbed his hand and looked into his eyes.

“I won’t leave unless you promise me something,” she said.

Harrison was desperate to send her off before Deathstorm found them. “Anything,” he said quickly.

“Don’t fail this city,” she told him. “Don’t leave it to die.”

“I promise,” he told her. “Now, run, Jesse. Run!”

She slid down the tunnel, falling with the water and sliding along the slippery moss which lined the sides. She looked back as she slipped down away from her father, watching his worried face shrink smaller and smaller until finally a bend blocked him from view.

Harrison could hear Deathstorm catching up to him. He knew he couldn’t outrun him, but he had to give Jesse as much of a head start as he could. He could see the flames of Deathstorm’s powers reflecting around the turns of the curving tunnel. 

Suddenly, his shadow flashed in front of him in stark detail, and he knew Deathstorm had a clear line of sight to him now. Then his whole body exploded in pain. The pain was centered in his wrist. He had always suspected that Ronnie was able to electrocute him through the watch tracker if he misbehaved.

Harrison’s legs gave out beneath him, and he rolled into the draining water in the center of the tunnel. Then Deathstorm was on top of him, his fists and whole body flamed up in powerful rage, and he roared his discontent up and down the tunnel.

“Where is she?” he yelled down at Harrison

Harrison began to speak as quickly as he could get words out, “I’ll cooperate. Now that she’s free, I’ll cooperate. I’ll do whatever Zoom wants.”

Deathstorm looked up and down the tunnel desperately, but there was no sign of Jesse.

“She’s not a metahuman, so she can’t leave the city,” Harrison lied. “I won’t risk there being a war in the city, since she might get hurt.”

Deathstorm panted and stared down at the groveling man at his feet. He knew Zoom would never agree to that deal. He would zip around the whole city until he found Jesse. Then he would kill either Deathstorm or Killer Frost or both, as punishment for letting Jesse get away.

“Where is she?” he yelled again.

Harrison intentionally looked further down the tunnel, hoping that Deathstorm would think he was looking towards her. But Deathstorm had been Harrison’s captor for weeks, and he knew how to read his little prisoner. Jesse must be back the way they had come.

He couldn’t trust Harrison to stay where he left him, but dragging along an uncooperative prisoner would slow him down in his search. So he stomped on Harrison’s ankle until it broke. He wouldn’t be able to go far now. Harrison’s cry of pain echoed down every branch of the concrete network of pipes.

Deathstorm ran back the way he had come, checking various side tunnels. He used his flames to light up the dark crevices. He yelled for Jesse to come out. Trying to be nice at first, knowing the girl was scared. Then amping up his threats, going into graphic detail about what he would do to her father if she didn’t come out. There were too many side tunnels for him to search properly, so he began to throw fireballs down them haphazardly. With all the water, there wasn’t much risk of burning the girl to death. He was just hoping to scorch her a little, then he could find her by following her screams. 

There were too many side tunnels to search adequately, so he returned to the exit and finally had a cell signal. He called Killer Frost, but she didn’t answer. Probably still enjoying her little boytoy. He called again, and this time she answered, annoyed and out of breath.

“I’m in the _middle_ of something,” she huffed.

“I lost the girl,” he explained without preamble.

Frost cursed. “Where are you?”

He threw a fireball at a nearby dead tree, and it ignited quickly despite the recent rain. “Follow the fire, babe.” He went back into the tunnels, desperately searching. 

He checked the same tunnels again, throwing bigger fireballs down them this time. He even threw one down a narrow pipe that went almost straight down and had water draining down it. He doubted if the girl could even fit through it, much less not drown.

He heard the tinkling of freezing water behind him. Maybe Frost could freeze all the water in the tunnels and smoke out the hiding girl. He turned around, prepared to do some flirty argumentative banter.

But instead he found the love of his life being lifted off the ground by a dark clawed hand wrapped around her throat. Frost stared at him desperately, her lips opening and closing like a fish. The tunnel walls around her began to frost over, but Zoom was immune to her cold powers.

“Please, don’t hurt her. _I_ messed up, _I’m_ the one that should be punished, not her, not her,” he begged Zoom,

“You’re right,” snarled Zoom. He dropped Frost down on the rough concrete of the tunnel and made his way over to Deathstorm, who was terrified but knew better than to try and outrun the fastest man alive. Zoom held his hand straight up and began to vibrate it like a chainsaw. Ronnie looked over at Caitlin.

“I love you,” he said, and Zoom’s hand plunged down and cut into his shoulder.

◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆ḅᛒ◆

Dr. Harrison Wells cradled his broken ankle in his hands.

With a crackle of electricity, Zoom suddenly appeared, towering over him like death itself. The monster cocked his head to the side, but said nothing.

Harrison looked up at him wearily. “I won’t leave this city,” he said. “I won’t fail it again. I promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The fourth and final part is the works. Stay tuned.


End file.
